Living for Today
by poprockie
Summary: It's not so much the fall that's unwelcome as it is everything that comes after it. There's danger around every corner and an adventure with every step- well, she came for a distraction so she'll stay for the fun. Even if it means following that crazy Captain with one foot in the grave. OC-insert, Spade Pirates.
1. Prologue

It began with a bang.

A shattering noise that had her throwing her hands up to cover her ears and shrieking at the sheer amount of sounds reverberating through her skull. Whatever aches and injuries were pushed aside in favor of shutting her eyes and retching out pain filled moans and screams. The cacophony leaving her mind swaying and tears running down her face.

It was- decidedly, _not a good day._

"Aaarrg-!" Yeah, that was her. Letting out such a pitiful moan that it would make even serial killers wince in sympathy.

"Who is that?!" Voices screamed and, had she been more aware, she wouldn't have accidentally ended up elbowing somebody in the face. But, no, the fact of the matter was, she wasn't doing anything but squirming around on the ground in something akin to seizures. Any hands that came close were snapped away by her teeth, fingernails or struggle, and whoever was around her had to step back a fair distance in her ensuing chaos.

The noise seemed to wane in her head for one long last eternal moment before the assault finally subsided and she was left; a deafening numbness that throbbed and pulsated. Alive.

"Huh?" And she stared up at the sky.

This was not a good day.

...

...

"So what's your name?"

He looked up from his papers, fiddling with his pen. The room was a cluttered mess and the woman standing before him was letting her eyes roam around listlessly. The days since she first arrived had long since passed but the ravenette had failed to insert herself into the village properly or leave.

So here she was.

"Quinn." She answered quickly, sharply, and he had to scowl at her. "Um… You're Roddie, right? The doctor said you had a job opening…"

She was mumbling. A quiet noise that he had to strain his ears to hear.

How annoying…

Quinn shifted from foot to foot at the attention that was suddenly focused on her. The room felt claustrophobic, and a tightness settled in her limbs, not doing anything to help her sudden anxiety.

He narrowed his eyes at her, face scrunching up. "Greeeaaat…" He drawled, "You're the new chick aren't you?"

Roddie tilted back in the chair, hands hooked behind his head and feet resting on his desk. Quinn wrinkled her nose, trying to curb the sudden sharp, uncontrollable annoyance that pierced through her at his amusement.

"'...Yeah?"

"Freaking weird look you got on your face." He pointed out. Tactfully. "Looks like you've been through quite a bit. Get any sleep recently?" He flicked a finger under his own eye. Successfully bringing her attention to the dark rings that had begun to circle around her eyelids.

She snorted. Like he was one to talk about being weird.

Roddie had blue hair, a nice distracting color that looked like it would fit in well among _crayons_. Unnatural and, while combed, still looked like a mess. His jeans were faded and worn, his boots clunky and stained, and the cleanest part of him was the crisp white uniformed shirt with the Marine crest on the breast and the Marines name spelt out along his back in that same obnoxious blue. Hell, even his nails looked cracked and chewed.

Not that her lips were much better. She chewed on the flesh bitterly, the skin was cracked, bleeding, and sensitive, but it didn't stop her from continuing. "Yeah…"

"Is that all you can say?" He raised a brow.

Quinn noted that, unlike his hair, it was a dull shade of brown. So, not natural like it had looked at first glance- _weird._ There was a few people on this island with hair just the same crazy coloring as his, only they vehemently attested to it being natural when she asked. One had even sworn at her, calling her an idiot.

(It had been the Doctor. He was an ass.)

"Now, tell me," he tapped the tip of his pen to his temple, "what's your full name? You won't get anywhere being picky with what you tell people."

"Varela." She scowled. "Quinn Varela. How bout you tell me what your real name is then? I seriously doubt that _Roddie_ is a real name." She spat it out as if it was poison on her tongue.

"Somebody's snappy." He chuckled, grin on his face. "And hey, you're the one coming to _me_ for a job."

At the reminder Quinn had to at least give him that because her time on Saigen had not been busy and she desperately needed the distraction. Since her impromptu arrival her days had been spent being nursed back to health by a small cranky doctor with a hunchback and retching out her lungs, all the while her body spasmed and the pain in her neck never left for even a moment. She rubbed the aforementioned appendage lightly. The thought of working for him was pretty…

Yeah, no thanks. She'd rather stick to odd jobs and errands but she really didn't have much of a choice at all.

"So…" He rocked back and forth, "What can you do?"

She found herself shrugging, lips pressed together in a thin line. "Whatever I need to. I guess." Her hands dropped lifelessly to her sides. Roddie paused, running a hand through his hair, and gave her a look-

"You don't actually know what I do here, do you?" He deadpanned.

It was more of a statement than a question. And at first she didn't answer, thinking it rhetorical, but after a long and awkward staring contest where she fiddled with the ends of her sleeves she awkwardly answered.

"Not-" She coughed into her shoulder, a stinging running through her chest and around her neck.

"Not really." Quinn admitted. "After I… _dropped_ onto the island, you could say… the village doctor just kinda… tossed me over here? I guess because he figured out that I couldn't pay him anything and my injuries were healed enough that he didn't have to do much more."

"Of course he did."

Roddie groaned audibly and waved a hand at her.

"Don't tell me more, I don't want to hear it. Damn it, this is just like him!" Roddie seethed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I run a mail station here, in the East Blue… The East Mail! I take care of messages and figure out where they need to be sent. From the South to the North, to the Grand Line or even the New World. So long as it needs somewhere to go or is sent here I make sure it goes right where it needs to." The explanation was quick and short. Said with a sort of sarcastic flamboyance.

A moment later he added in an afterthought, "The old man who used to run this place was struck down with double heart attacks and I took the job 'cause I needed to do something that would keep me away from prying eyes… I guess he got a great shock!"

"Double heart attacks…?" Quinn mused and was subsequently ignored.

"Of course they would throw you over here. The doctor is a money-grubber and this place is freaking horrible with new people…"

Quinn opened her mouth but closed it as he continued on rambling.

"Send _me_ the crazy looking weirdo-" She fixed him under a purposeful glare. "-Because I'm technically the new guy, even though I've been stuck on this crap-hole East Blue Island half a year already. And I took over the stupid failing mail business because the Marines were too incompetent for anything that takes brains and the old guy died…! So, yeah, of course, they had to throw her at me!"

"I'm…" She felt like a scrap of unwanted paper. "I'm still here, ya'know?"

He waved her off, "Let me rant."

"Mn..." Both her eyebrows shot up. "Hmmm…?"

"I don't even have a job opening. I work better alone- it was always one of my study habits and this is no different." He pursed his lips, "But they're gonna make me take you just to get you out of their hair. And because you dropped out of nowhere and clearly have no idea what the hell is going on-" She rolled her eyes and sat down on the floor, pushing litter out of the way with a wide sweep of her arms.

"Quiet down," Quinn pulled a face. "You're such a whiner."

He glanced down at her, incredulous. "Whatever Quinn. We both got screwed in this. Me much more so than you."

She disagreed, rolling her eyes and scoffing.

She was the one currently sitting in a pile of garbage thank you very much. She would take the 'got properly screwed today' bragging rights off his hands joyfully. Even if only to throw it back in his face.

"Are you going to continue having a crisis or can I leave?" She thrust a thumb back over her shoulder at the door. It was rusted and looked like it was going to fall off its hinges if she tsp much as touched it. "Clearly, you're not going to hire me."

Maybe she could get an award for being the Master of Shitty Interviews to go along with her bragging rights.

He paused for a moment and a thoughtful look coming over him, "You good at running a long time?"

"Yeah…? I used to run track and be crazy into parkour… why?"

Gosh, her body ached just thinking about it. The running and thrill was fun, the bruises… not so much.

"Then congrats! I have a use for you. One that'll keep you out of my hair and make a mess of the islanders," he seemed to swoon at the thought, hands clasped tightly. "You're my new gofer."

There was a long pause. She was unsure if she had heard correctly.

"...gofer."

"Or courier, if you prefer." He shrugged, grinning. "But the title doesn't really matter. You'll basically only be running deliveries all day and that's about it. Nice, sweet, simple, and keeps you out of my way and thrown into others. The Marines have plenty of crap they want carried and, being unfortunately considered part of their organization at the moment, I can get you to do it. This is a supply island after all."

Quinn found herself rolling her eyes, "You know, for someone who seems to think the people here are jerks, you're doing quite the job to make them as uncomfortable as possible. Maybe there's a reason they don't like you…"

He stared at her blankly.

Quinn raised an eyebrow when he waved his hand in the air, "Psh-nawww~ That's not it."

"Sure not."

Roddie ignored her, "Congrats, gofer, you got the job."

Quinn ran a hand over her face, "Don't call me that."

"Well, maybe, just a thought, you shouldn't talk back to your boss."

As if to add onto the fact, he repeated it with a sneer, "Gofer."

...

...

Quinn realized, coming to a sudden halt and practically throwing a package at someone's face, that there was probably something wrong with her. Fundamentally. Not having to do with the chronic neck pain and the standard problems that she was used to dealing with. There was just something wrong with how quickly she had jumped into work on an island that she had never heard of before and gone on without much of a thought as to where she was or what was actually happening.

It was as if she had looked up and said:

"Oh, the sky is bright red and raining acid? Must be normal."

And gone on with her life.

Just an overall lack of caring. And awareness.

She felt like there was a word for it. But she couldn't put her finger on it exactly.

"You damn bi-" Oh, she was being cursed out. That was fun.

She sighed. What she would give for some good noise canceling headphones right now. Yeah, that would be wonderful. It would go right along with her bored and dead resting bitch face that had been cultivated to perfection.

Wonderful.

...And this guy was still making noise.

Geez. Did he even breath?

"I'll tell your boss about this!"

"Sorry." She mumbled loosely, eyeing the shattered parcel on the ground by their feet. It hadn't had fragile written on it anywhere so it wasn't like it was her fault. "And good luck with that. He won't care."

He'd probably get a good laugh out of it in all honesty. Roddie made it a point to piss people off or poke fun, especially at the Marines. He seemed to have some lowkey passive aggressiveness towards them and spent his time making everything as difficult as possible, and the islanders were often caught in the middle of the war. Actually, her eye twitched, when she last saw him, just that morning, she had walked in on him carefully looking over papers and pictures of misshapen fruit and, when she asked, his response to it had been: "Just forging documents. Nothing too illegal. Wouldn't ask any more if I were you, otherwise they could get you for conspiracy or something." Which she had shrugged at. It didn't sound like he was lying either.

Oh, indifference. That was the word she was looking for.

The guy turned beet red.

"Sayonara." And she left before he could so much as send another curse her way.

Quinn sighed. She had been doing that a lot lately.

The jog was easy enough and, in fact, a quiet thrum of exuberance resonated through her lungs. Even her legs, which had initially ached throughout the first week working for Roddie, seemed to bounce under step with a renewed giddiness that she hadn't felt in a long, long time. The job was… healthier for her than she would admit. But while the running and exercise was great and did wonders she was much, much, _much_ less enthusiastic about the people. Case in point the guy running after her.

"Get back over here! You owe me for that package you destroyed-" he shouted, "I expect repayment!"

She gritted her teeth, "Go- away!"

Yeah, this island was not happy with her presence.

She rounded a corner.

"AH!"

"-gyeh!"

There was groaning and grunting. And pain.

It felt like she had just run face first into a wall.

"Well, that was rude!" A voice, high pitched and loud, announced.

Quinn winced as her elbow buried sharply into the ground, scraping against the concrete. Her hoodie being covered in dust and dirt as she was sent slamming into the ground. "Damn it…" She muttered. That was gonna sting later.

"You okay there?"

"Well, I'm being chased. So yeah. Might as well have it be called an okay day."

Brown hair cut in a bob, dark eyes and contrasting bright clothes that blinded and grated on her eyes. She stood with her hands on her hips, lips pursed and her cheeks puffed out. Looking as if she was about to give a damn lecture. Quinn couldn't help but shoot the woman she had just plowed into an incredulous stare. She was built like a rock wall if she hadn't so much as moved an inch.

"Aren't you…?" The woman stopped short, mouth closing before opening again, looking curious.

"Aren't I…?" She returned dryly.

There was blood on her knees and her leggings had been ripped. Great. There went her only pair of proper clothes.

"HEY! Where'd you go-?!"

 _And that guy was still on her tail!_

"What the-"

And before she could so much as begin to pick herself up off the ground a hand was wrapping around her bicep and shoving her into the space between a fence and a building. Her exclamation was cut short by the heavy breathing of the guy rushing by in a hurry and the woman blocking her view with her own body. A few moments passed and the brunette stepped away, letting her crawl out and blink in confused surprise.

"I- thanks?"

She went ignored.

"Ooh~ that was the bar owner. He has temper issues." She laughed, incredibly loud. "That must have been scary."

Quinn, again, didn't even get to move.

She was already in her face.

"Uhhhh-"

"Anyways, I'm Dahlia! It's nice to meet you!"

It sounded like she was almost screaming- her voice boomed and reached high octaves that Quinn would liken to shrieks over a normal speaking tone. The woman didn't seem to be aware of her own noise, clearly she had been born with an outdoor-voice, and simply smiled like she was the happiest person in the world.

"Sorry," she winced. "And-Uh… yeah… nice to meet… you too."

Quinn finished lamely.

"So why was he after you?"

"...He didn't catch his package and it broke."

"Do you make a habit of destroying your clients stuff?" Dahlia mused, "Because if you do that doesn't sound like a rockin' business deal, not for the customers at least. Maybe not for you either- unless you got some wicked sadistic side and get off on that sort of thing." She pursed her lips, tapping her chin.

"...I don't think so."

"Like Roddie!"

"No. Definitely not."

Dahlia laughed. Not believing her for even a second. "No wonder all the others talk about you behind your back!"

Quinn made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a grumble.

"Oh? How nice."

Somebody was shouting again. Probably the guy with the temper.

"I wouldn't say so! It sounds really mean," Dahlia frowned, "What are you? An idiot?'

She stared.

"... _no_."

"What's your name by the way? Vallie? Ella?"

"Quinn Varela."

"Oh, I was close!"

No. No she was not.

"So, Varela, how's Saigen been treating you so far? Besides the obvious!"

The obvious being the guy with the temper.

Quinn dusted herself off. "Just swell."

And the shouting was getting louder and louder. It was beginning to become pretty bothersome too. She narrowed her eyes, looking over Dahlia's head, yeah, something was definitely going on over there. "What's going on?"

"Hm?" Dahlia turned her head, "What?"

She chewed on her lip distractedly, face scrunching. It… looked like a fight?

At the point where her vision began to blur- and, yes, she probably needed glasses- she could make out a large group, or rather, two large groups who seemed to be in the middle of what looked like a full-blown turf war. Marines on one side, she guessed at least because the white uniforms weren't common outside that line of work, and what looked to be the most sorry bunch of stereotypical pirates she had ever had the displeasure of seeing on the other. A few even had feathers on their hats.

"Damn, I really need glasses." She rubbed at her eyes. Either that or she was going crazy...

"Oh no…" Dahlia moaned, cupping the side of her cheek. "What is it now that's got them wrecking even more havoc?"

"Does this happen often?" She asked, voice incredulous and wincing when she caught sight of the downed forms of a few people. And Quinn pointedly ignored the screams and groaning.

"Mn." Dahlia seemed to wilt, her once cheerful disposition falling away to a sort of weariness that didn't suit the smile-lined face. "It started quite a few months ago. Maybe half a year or so? We think they're just fighting to fight."

Quinn blinked at the explanation, taking a deep breath in through her nose.

"That's a…" she feels her mouth pull tight, "A lame reason." She finished with almost a sneer.

"Heh- Yeah, let's just hope we don't get caught in the crossfire."

"...I kinda need to go that way."

"...Me too."

Great.

She could always go the long way but-

Yeah, her indifference to the whole situation was far outweighing her sense of self-preservation at the moment.

"We could just walk by them?" Quinn tried.

"Won't that get us killed though?"

"Uh- they seem pretty preoccupied with each other. It's not like we're their target."

Dahlia eyed her thoughtfully before nodding. "Alright, let's go!"

She pushed Dahlia along. And if she purposely put her in the line of fire to protect herself… well, _shhh._ She took a second to pause and observe the group as they shuffled on by. The fighting was more of a tumbling match than an actual sword fight- Honestly, she saw at least three people trip over their own shoelaces within the first ten seconds of her staring. It was awkward and centred around something that she couldn't quite make out.

Well, not until she focused for a second.

"Are…" she paused, voice incredulous, "Are they fighting over a box?"

That was less surprising than she thought it would be. Still, terribly disappointing.

"How-" she grimaced, " _Stupid._ "

Her hatred for humanity slowly increasing aside, well, Quinn really didn't want to know what was so great about some _box_ that got people in the streets fighting each other over it. She clenched her hands together, very nearly throwing her head back with the force of her groan; was this really what she had been thrown into? How sucktastic.

"I don't care!" Dahlia declared loudly, a quirk of hers that Quinn was beginning to notice and quickly deciding that it was aggravating. She was just… real loud. "So long as their attention is not on us- or any of the natives- it's just fine!"

Quinn agreed easily enough, "If nobody gets it in their head to play hero or whatever then everything should be okay. They'll probably stop once one side runs off with the box or everybody's dead." Dahlia flinched at her bluntness. Despite that, she didn't backtrack, instead continuing with the same dry tone, "Either way it's pretty much a win-win for us, in the end. If they just kill each other then we won't have to worry about anymore fights breaking out, ya' know?" She snorted to herself.

Well, she was trying to look at the bright side of the situation at least. For once. Though she seriously doubted they were actually any good at killing each other. The moment one got punched in the face they were laid flat out on the ground squealing like kicked puppies and it wasn't like anybody was going in and finishing anybody off while they were out of commission.

Quinn flinched. Okay- so maybe she really did have a sadistic side or something.

"You are… scary, Varela." Dahlia shivered, wrapping her arms around herself as if she was freezing. "Remind me not to get on your bad side."

She made an offended noise.

As they inched by Dahlia whispered, "Are you sure about this?"

"Not at all. But I mean," she quickly retracted when Dahlia's mouth fell open, "it's not like some kid is gonna run over and start antagonizing them."

"Ah- haha, yeah. That would be silly."

Of course, the world had to go and ruin everything.

"Hey, you!" Quinn felt her entire body stiffened at the sudden shout behind her. Face frozen in the content smirk. "Yeah, I'm talkin' to you dum-dum! Fight me now you cowards!"

The world had a cruel sense of humor.

" _Oh my god, this is happening right now."_

"A dumb kid appeared?!" Dahlia exclaimed in horror. "She challenges the scoundrel's to a duel?!"

" _I jinxed us. I somehow, totally, and irrefutably jinxed us."_

"You guys hurt my brother in your last fight!" A little girl in distractingly bright clothing on par with Dahlia's snapped. She couldn't be a day older than twelve. "And you destroyed his favorite book! That was our Uncles, you b-big dummies!"

As one, the group turned to greet her. With less than happy faces.

The little girl flinched backwards, sent reeling, but remained in her spot. Fists clenched awkwardly and thumbs tucked beneath her fingers- _she didn't even know how to throw a punch properly and yet she was screaming at a group of grown men to fight her._

Feeling an incredible urge to facepalm Quinn groaned.

"What is this world?!" She exclaimed under her breath in a broken whisper. "Do you purposely raise imbeciles with no sense of self-preservation?"

"Ah, what about what we're doing?"

"We don't count." She growled. They were at least trying to mind their own business.

"Get out of here brat!" A marine hissed, frozen mid swing. And Quinn had to actually face palm this time because why weren't they taking advantage of the fact that their enemies were distracted?! "You're gonna get yourself killed!"

One of the pirate looking fellows gave a sleazy grin, walking over to the little girl with his hands on his hips, "C'mon. Why don't we indulge the little kiddie? Go on brat, throw a punch. I'll even give you a free shot!"

The girl stared up at him with wide frightened eyes.

She then closed her eyes and inhaled deeply when the girl got a determined look in her eyes and puffed up pridefully.

" _You stupid little baby._ " She bit out sharply.

"Ah-ah-" Dahlia tutted, looking like she was about to run forward, "Someone needs to- I need to- We need to- Somebody has to step in!"

The little girl raised her hand and punched him as hard as she could in the leg. The man laughed as she tore her hand back and whimpered loudly, from having held her fist wrong and smashing her thumb beneath the force of her own hit. She looked to be holding back the tears that suddenly bloomed to life in her eyes. The man's grin turned wicked.

"Alrighty, little kiddie, I think it's my turn now."

The girls mouth fell open and she curled backwards. "B-B-But-!"

He raised his fist and flung it downwards. The skin-on-skin contact leaving a bruise that was bound to stay for awhile. It looked painful, it _felt_ painful. Ow. "That must've hurt." She said nonchalantly.

And her earlier realization came back to her in full blown force.

It did seem like there was something wrong with her. A big, fundamental problem with her personality. A kind of flaw that she was born with and had never grown out of. Mostly because her reaction was not to run ahead and help the kid, or to think about helping her, or anything of the sort. No. Her immediate reaction was to have an introspective session. Which said a lot actually.

She pursed her lips, looking at the sky.

It was blue. Seemed like a blue kind of day.

The kid wailed, holding onto her face, tears and snot running down her face in a disgusting showmanship of just how much she could cry. Drops of blood smeared onto the dirt. The marines all looked on in horror at the sight. And yet, despite their so-called justice, they didn't appear to be running forward to offer any help anytime soon or even to lift a finger. No, instead they ducked their heads and shuffled their feet.

The sight sparked an annoying twinge of recognition.

"Oh," Quinn blinked coldly, her brow furrowing together. "Is that what I look like?"

She mused, why, wasn't that just _pathetic?_

"One for beating up kids, asshole?" Quinn called, and she barely withheld the shock at how steady and calm her voice sounded. And then the shock that she had even spoken up at all hit like a train.

She cursed at herself. Of all days to be impulsive.

"What was that you…" he raised his head. "Oh, it's the foreigner chick! Come to try and play hero or something? Trying to make yourself look good, are you?" He spat out. Ooh, tough guy, isn't he? Even though he had _flinched_ when the little girl punched him.

"Is the talking with a foot in your mouth a fetish or is this a new thing you're trying out?" She quipped.

Wow, that was... terrible.

Taunting was not her strong-suit.

"It's not a good look on you. Not that you would know what good looked like."

She stepped forward to drag the attention away from the still sniveling girl, even as every muscle in her body stiffened and bent under the focus. Ready to bolt the moment she got the chance. Oh _god._ What was she thinking? Biding her time. Just- trying not to look at the girl… don't look at the girl…

Shit! She glanced at her.

"Oh hey," she announced loudly- a mocking of Dahlia's voice-and forced her attention back on the pirateer and away from the girl. It got the pirates attention too and he looked away. Just in time otherwise he would have seen the surprisingly stealthy Dahlia scurrying away with the girl under arm. Soon as Dahlia combat-rolled out of the scene Quinn was stabbing a finger back in the direction of the box. "Look, the Marines are trying to get away with that box you guys so desperately want!"

Which, they weren't, they hadn't moved. But they didn't need to know that.

"Wha-! Hey!" He shouted, "Stop them!"

Quinn slunk away before he could realize she was gone.. Hiding away and breathing out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding. That went far better than she expected. Luck must be on her side today.

"Varela!"

"KE-!" The scream was cut short.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

Dahlia certainly didn't sound sorry. She looked rather pleased with herself and was holding onto-

Quinn growled.

"You brought _her_ with you?!" The disgust dripped from her tongue like acid.

The kid squeaked.

"Well what was I supposed to do?" Dahlia scowled back, "Drop her in a trashcan and tell her to be on her way?"

"Hell if I care!"

Dahlia narrowed her eyes at her thinly before replying cheekily. "Oh yeah- I bet you're actually a super softy on the inside, aren't you, Varela? You talk all that scary an' horrible stuff but you're secretly a teddy bear."

The scowl on her face, coupled with her glare and the wrinkle of her forehead was indeed the most adorable teddy bear face in existence.

Her eye twitched. Quinn ignored her, "Brat, you okay?"

The girl shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut.

"So long as you're not crying, you're fine." She pressed her lips together then, "And don't you dare take that as an invitation to start making noise and bawling. You're lucky you weren't killed, you little shit, and you almost got us killed too. Hope you're proud of yourself."

Was she being petty? Probably. Was she currently seething with rage and not caring at this point? Most definitely.

Her nonchalant-streak had been ruined beyond repair.

The girl closed her mouth with a snap of her teeth grinding together.

She peeked over the edge of their little hidey hole. Nothing more than a couple of barrels they had ducked behind. "Okay, it looks like they're distracted. We can probably make a run for it now and get the so-called kiddie to the doctor."

Quinn didn't notice the way the girl flinched at the title of kiddie.

"Okay, let's go."

Dahlia and the girl hadn't moved still.

They simply stared up at her with wide eyes.

"What-?!"

That seemed to snap them out of their stupor.

"Well, chop chop!" She motioned with her hands, "Vámonos! Get a move on!"

Dahlia jerked to her feet, pulling the girl along as they jogged away from the current battlefield. Kiddie stumbling on her feet, sniffling all the way. Quinn grumbled under her breath, taking the brat under her arm and taking most of the weight off of her limp.

She ignored the wide, glistening eyes staring up at her in something close to admiration.

"Oh, thank goodness." Dahlia huffed, "I think we're gonna be okay now."

Quinn let out a light laugh at that.

"Kehehe~ Of course. I mean," she grinned widely for the first time in what felt like years, exhilarated. "It's not like the entire object of their attention is gonna fall directly into my hands and screw us all!"

Oh.

 _There's the instant regret._

 _..._

Ah, was she hit by a train? Because that is sure as hell what it felt like.

Quinn stared down at the broken box on the ground. Hands curled around the horrifying and odd fruit that remained, having been flung up into the air and directly down into her grip. Really, she should know better by now than to go around opening her big mouth. Once was a coincidence, twice was… damn it, whatever god there was must really have it out for her.

That 'got screwed' award definitely had her name on it.

She twitched, eyes casting away from the sky and down to her surroundings.

Or, rather, _cough,_ those who surrounded her.

"Give the Devil's Fruit here gal!"

Scoundrels jeered and threatened. Marines pleaded and bribed. Quinn stood frighteningly still.

"Today. Today," she announced. "Is not a good day."

The swords in her face got dangerously closer.

She turned to the nearest Marine, ignoring his outstretched hand trying to swipe the fruit away, "This is called a Devil's Fruit, isn't it?"

A cold sheen of sweat seemed to cover him and he nodded numbly. Huh. The name tickled something at the back of her head but she couldn't properly place it. In fact, there was something about this entire place that felt creepily like deja vu and she was about done with the feeling. Really, she was about done with it all.

"Is it poisonous?"

He hesitated here, stuttering. "U-Um… w-we don't kn-know. I-It... could be?" He barely managed to squeak out.

His fellow marines, a blonde guy with a sick mask on, eyes widened.

"Wait-"

"I see." She bobbed her head along, as if it cleared up some grand revelation. Which, in some way, it did. "That's good enough for me then."

"No!"

She eyed the fruit. "Well, I never did believe in second chances anyways."

And Quinn took a bite.


	2. Saigen I

She paced.

Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth… back and forth…

"Damn it!" She cursed and kicked a rock, sending it flying across the room. "Enough with the back and forth already!"

Swiveling around she ground her teeth together and ignored the painful grind of her lip being caught and cut between them, chewing on the skin haplessly. Her stress levels and anxiety were through the roof and, she wiped her arm over her eyes to stop the tears that sprung forth, everything was just completely overwhelming. This was not…

She groaned and pressed a hand to her forehead, the pain in her neck bringing out a whimpered growl. This was pathetic, really. She was pathetic.

"I really am aren't I…?" Quinn moaned pitifully to herself. Damn it, she thought she'd fallen out of the self-deprecating attitude. She stopped chewing on her lip and let out a frustrated snarl, whipping around and kicking once again.

Which was a bad idea, by the way. "Ow! Ow… Ow…! Freaking… ow…!" She ended quietly with a whine, clutching onto her foot. "I just broke a n-nail or something-!"

And she groaned. Because, honestly, this was all her fault.

All of it.

She collapsed to the concrete floor with a huff, flopping onto her back without a thought to the dirt or the bugs that were probably clinging to her hair by this point. Lips pressed together into a tight line, legs crossed and one draped over the other, beyond frustrated. The ceiling was just as dark and decrepit as the floor. To make matters worse there was a mysterious dark stain running up alongside the wall that Quinn really, really did not want to question.

"Oh, look, little ol' Quinn Varela all by her lonesome," she mocked in a playful but borderline hysterical tone, "Again. Doesn't it always seem to come back to that, huh? It just does, doesn't it?"

She grabbed her hair and tugged harshly, cursing.

"You know…" Quinn jumped, eyes flinging open wide, "You're not doing yourself any favors by talking to yourself."

There was a moment where she twisted around to see who had appeared before a sneer enveloped her face. Her eyes narrowing into dangerous slits.

"Oh, it's just you." She muttered darkly, disinterestedly.

She flipped back around and settled into her previous position. Only it was tense now, uncomfortable. She felt stiff and rumpled, as if a bucket of water had been dumped on her and her clothes were in that wet pre-dry stage that left you feeling stale. Quinn ignored the offended laugh, a fake noise that made her clench her fists together and bury her nails deep into her palm. In the back of her head, the pain registered as a comforting distraction.

"I missed you too," he called over, "You know it's your own fault that you were put here."

She did. But she wasn't about to admit that.

"Kindly." She drawled, "Fuck off."

Quinn raised her hand in a symbol that was thankfully cross-dimensional.

"Always with the language." He all but purred. "You would've been fine if you had just returned the fruit back to the Marines or, hell, even the pirates! My crew…" He paused, as if stumbling over his words, realizing the mistake. "Well, whatever. Not like you'll live long enough to tell anybody."

She paused, turning around. "Excuse me? What-?"

He looked guilty. And he pursed his lips and dragged a hand over his tan face, blue hair ruffled. "What did you expect? I had everything planned out and you just had to come in and ruin it all. Do you know how much of a pain it is sneaking into Marine Bases? Let me tell you, it's not easy or as fun as one would think."

Was she missing something? She felt like she was grasping at straws here and none of them were the right one. "Ha-huh?" The question, that was more of a noise than anything, came out strangled.

"To be fair, I probably shouldn't have hired you in the first place, despite the doctor sending you my way. The ass. You were bound to get caught up in all of this eventually," he sighed, catching her eye with a hard look, "Why did you have to go and eat the Devil Fruit, huh? Real stupid thing you did there."

"I didn't know it was a Devil Fruit…!" Quinn hissed, pulling away. No. That wasn't right. She knew it was a Devil Fruit but, at the time, it hadn't exactly computed. "I was still… confused…"

She settled on the word after a long moment. It was probably the closest thing she could get to explaining without admitting that she was from an entirely different world and had been ripped away rather cruelly into this one. Her brain still felt rattled from the realization sometime after eating the damn-weird-disgusting fruit. Almost as if her brain was lagging a few weeks behind.

The fruit had cleared that up right quick.

And while it hadn't changed much initially… that was until the Marines came knocking at her door.

Quinn bit her lip. A pirates world… The One Piece world was just…

...and she was already getting a glance at how corrupt it was and how ready it was to take advantage of her.

"If the Marines got it first then I could have just bribed the Marine Captain... If my Crew managed to get it first then it would be easy making it look as if it was just another random Pirate attack…" He groaned under his breath. "This was supposed to be easy. Either way I would have gotten the Fruit and been rich!"

"What does that have to do with me?!" Quinn scowled at him, still feeling as if she was missing something. "So I ate the fruit. You can't get it back! Move on with your life instead of getting hung up over BS things like this… you didn't have to turn me into the Marines."

She threw up her hands and gestured around herself, "Look at this place. It's disgusting! I didn't even _do_ anything illegal!"

"Once a Devil Fruit is eaten you can't get… it… back…?" He eyed her sharply.

Quinn leaned away at a sudden foreboding, chewing on her lip once again.

Thoughts running a mile a minute before, with a dawning realization, her mouth formed a soft and near silent, " _Oh_ …"

"Except…" Roddie leaned against the bars of the jail, "There is one way to get a Devil Fruit back."

She shrunk in on herself.

"You… wouldn't…?"

Roddie nodded, "The Marine Captain was promised a promotion for the exchange of the Devil Fruit to a Vice-Admiral a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the Marines don't want a person. At least… this way, now that I've turned you in, I may be able to steal the fruit before any higher up gets here and I won't have any blood on my hands."

His allusion was not lost on her.

"You… had this all planned out…?" Quinn asked dumbly, tongue feeling twisted and heavy in her mouth.

A cold stone settled in the base of her stomach and left her feeling queasy and nauseous, as if she was going to vomit. Had Quinn been standing she was sure that she would have thrown a punch at him, even if bars were separating them. But instead her fingers scraped along the concrete and she tossed a handful of dust up at him. It had the opposite effect and what little breeze there was sent it puffing back into her face.

She coughed at the bout of bad luck.

"You…?!" She managed to grit out harshly, at a loss for words. "You- traitorous scumbag!"

"Yeah! I get called that a lot." He chirped abruptly and Quinn was given the most plastic printed look she had ever been witness to. Everything about this man was fake! "But with you gone my Crew and I will be living the luxurious life with the money we can get from that fruit! I hear it's quite the expensive piece~"

Quinn was left sputtering in his wake.

"That's it…? You're just going to let them kill me," Quinn's face slowly scrunched upwards and her brow furrowed downward, eyes cold. "Just like that? No…"

Roddie paused in step, shooting her a cursory glance over his shoulder. Quinn stopped chewing on her lip to grasp the bars and pull back into a sneer. Angry, pissed. An obsessive fire promising death. He decided that he didn't like the look. It fit a little too well on her normally apathetic face and sent a shiver running up his spine.

"You're too much of a coward to do it yourself!"

He turned away, "Ooh~ Trust me, that's not it! I just enjoy sticking to a plan."

The door to the cells open and a Marine came to stand next to him, offering the tense pair a confused look. Clearly wondering what sort of conversation he had stumbled in on. "What's she talking about?"

"Fufufufu…!" He huffed out a terse chuckle, "Oh, don't worry about it! It's just the ramblings of a little-lost-prisoner, they usually start spouting nonsense eventually."

The explanation only seemed to confuse the Marine more but he settled on not questioning it; like a little sheep. Quinn growled. It was just another sheep following the herd, something that Quinn had decided all the Marines were back when she first read One Piece. Unimpressive, delicate, and just the same as all the rest.

"You're pathetic you know that?" She bit her tongue to keep from adding, even more than me.

And Roddie grinned. A cold, cruel curve that held no humor or any of the fakeness she had previously seen on his face; it didn't quite reach his eyes. "We're not so different then, huh?"

She reeled back.

Before she could add anything he raised his hand in a childish wave, "Byeee~!"

And she was left. All alone.

"Alone… again…" She sighed pathetically, staring at the space that Roddie had once occupied. And the sheep that followed him went with.

"So help me, I don't care what happens to me, but I want that cowardly bastard to suffer."

But, locked in a jail cell somewhere beneath the Marine base she had been thrown into when Roddie had turned her in, she couldn't even touch him.

She sighed again.

And her neck continued to hurt like a bitch.

Unknown to her a certain new-to-the-seas Pirate was picking his way through the island.

Or, he was lost.

There was that.

...

...

Strutting down the street with a blonde on his right and an empty street in his wake was definitely something he could get used to. But, he scrunched his face up, the island itself was not fun. Nothing but boring buildings. Boring people. Not a hint of fun to be found.

"Sir," the Marine sideyed him, "We sure about the kind of fruit?"

He spun on heel, walking backwards to enjoy the sight of the Marine. The grin on his face a little too prominent, little too joyful. "Yeah. Cherries. Sour Cherries specifically."

And isn't it wonderful that as soon as he learned that lil' fact he'd gone on a little greenhouse excursion and found himself with fruit just ripe for the picking.

"Uh-huh."

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing. You just seem happy."

"Shouldn't I be?" Roddie quirked a brow, the Marine sighed through his sick mask. "I mean, I'm getting quite the sum of money aren't I?"

"Yes. But-" He pointed out thinly, tucking his hands into his pockets, "-I'm the one that has to deal with you afterwards. And we both know you get nightmares. You're not too great with cold blooded kills."

He twitched.

"...You're such a killjoy, Jo-"

"-GEH!"

"AH- urg, ow…." Roddie groaned, holding his head in his hands. He had been sent straight to the ground. "...What the hell-?"

"Sorry, sorry! My bad, I didn't mean to hit you there."

His mouth fell open.

"You okay? You have a really hard head- ah, that was rude wasn't it?"

Behind him his Marine was snickering.

"Anyways- uh, hey, I'm-"

"Why- are you upside down?"

"Huh?"

"Upside down. Why." He demanded, rubbing his palm over his forehead. Well, this was unexpected. And a little bit concerning.

The kid frowned- smiled?- tilting his head and crossing his arms over his bare chest. His hat, a bright orange cowboy hat, hung from his chin, and his hair flopped down to show off steely grey eyes and freckles. He quirked a smile towards them, glancing back at his feet, "Ah- I was taking a shortcut."

He was hanging upside down from a post, feet hooked around the top and a delicately swaying flower pot threatening to fall.

Roddie took a step away.

"A… shortcut."

"Yep." He twisted, landing on his feet. Now that he was standing rightside up Roddie couldn't help but gape at him. Then, he bowed. "You have my sincerest apologies."

"Yeah, sure, kid."

Said kid balked. "Kid?!"

"Sorry, that's my bad. Pre-teen?"

"Hey, you li-"

Whatever he was going to say was cut off by his blonde Marine coming to his rescue. He bowed, practiced with a long sweep of his arm, a hand placed on his chest, and a flourish. "Sorry, sir, we're just a little bit stressed with an execution beginning and a Vice-Admiral visiting. You'll have to excuse Roddie's attitude."

The kid seemed miffed. "...sure. Have him apologize for you, huh?"

Roddie shrugged. "Guess so~"

"Thank you for being reasonable. We'll be on our way."

And he was dragged off, sticking out his tongue at the ravenette, before anything else could be said. Walking down the street again with a bit more pep in his step.

"Nice save! You're pretty good at that." Roddie complimented. Tossing a glance in the distance. The villagers had formed a party at the docks, leaving nobody to be seen- with the exception of the cowboy kid -as they prepared a welcoming committee for some Vice Admiral he hadn't heard the name of just yet.

"Tch." The blonde didn't seemed happy, looking rumpled. "You know I hate having to suck up to randoms."

He shuddered.

"Yes, don't we all?" Roddie cooed. "But you're excellent at it! Besides, think of all the fun we can have with this. It's fun just tricking, manipulating, roleplaying-"

"I'm not into roleplaying with scrubs."

He froze.

"I- did you just call me a scrub?"

"Nuhuu- I did."

The "kid" watched the pair leave with a raised eyebrow. A bit befuddled by the encounter. He shrugged, shouldering his bag into a more comfortable position, and grabbed his hat that had plopped onto the ground when he had flipped onto his feet. Dusting it off with a few gentle pats Ace placed it back on his head and turned towards the road, "...An execution, huh?"

And a Vice Admiral apparently. He'd have to watch out for them.

But… and he grinned here, "Wonder what they did to get a death sentence-"

 _Pfft!_

Something bounced off his forehead.

"...Ha?"

A piece of…

Ace blinked.

...paper?

"Psst-!" He caught another before it could hit him. "Psssst- Hey!"

He looked to the left. To the right. Nobody.

"Hey you!"

Oh, a little kid.

Ace pointed to himself.

"Me?"

As far as he was aware he'd never seen a kid outfitted in a ninja costume before. Certainly not one that would throw crumpled up pieces of newspaper at him in order to get his attention. Even Luffy wouldn't… er, nevermind. He cast the kid a bemused look, they didn't look older than- twelve? Yeah, twelve. And she was partially hidden behind a building, one hand cupping her mouth and the other fisting a handful of more paper.

"Yeah- you!" She hollered, tossing it. It fell short. "Over here- come, over here! Hurry, hurry, damn it, vamos!"

Ace continued to stare but picked his way over slowly.

Much to her chagrin.

"Finally-!" She puffed out her cheeks, eyeing him up and down, a foot taping impatiently. "Hmmm-"

She focused an intense gaze on him.

And Ace jumped when she slapped a hand onto his stomach.

"Wha-?"

Was… was this normal on this island? Those other guys didn't do anything like this. He shivered at the feeling of her hand splayed across his stomach. "Uh… can I help you?" Hold up. Ace froze. She was feeling up his abs. "Hey-"

She scrunched up her face, patting him once, before nodding her head firmly.

"You'll do."

Huh?

Disturbed, and feeling vaguely violated, Ace took a step out of reach of her grabby hands and crossed his arms over his chest. "Wait- I'll do?" He choked. That sounded ominous. "For what?"

Apparently he wasn't going to get the chance to find out because the girl spun on heel and took off, only taking a second to throw a shout back over her shoulder- "Come on then! Follow me."

"Follow you-?"

"Yeah- hurry the hell up!"

He blinked openly, not bothering to keep his surprise at bay. Then shrugged and did as she said- or ordered, more like. She was a bossy kid. So he could forego the pleasantries, "So- what the hell's your name?" She wasn't very fast. He was already running next to her by the time she managed to get a few more steps in.

"Gah! So fast!"

"Thanks."

She swallowed, "I'm Maple!"

"Oh, like the syrup?"

He expected her to give an indignant shout, or be offended, or something along those lines. What he definitely wasn't expecting was the loud, shocked gasp that she emitted or the hands being flung to her cheeks in horror- or childlike wonderment. The two were surprisingly easy to mix up. "A-A-A-Are you a Psychic!?" She exclaimed. Stars in her eyes, positively delighted. Oh, so it was the latter. "THAT'S SO COOOL~!"

He nearly stumbled under foot.

Definitely not the reaction he was expecting.

Coughing, "Uh- no, I'm not. Where'd you get that idea?"

"B-B-But how'd you know then?!" She gasped. "That's my given name! Syrup! I'm Maple Syrup!"

"...Your _name_ is Maple Syrup?"

That was some kind of cruel joke. It must be. To name your kid… Ace grimaced. _Syrup._ Especially when their surname was Maple. Creative, sure. Kind though? Not at all.

"Yep but everyone calls me Maple!" She chirped. "Even my sisters- ah, don't tell them I called them that! They don't know yet."

Ace sputtered a laugh, greatly amused by the claim. "How can they not know yet?"

"I only met them a few months ago- they saved my life! And I've decided that they're mine now so, ergo: They're my sisters." She explained. As if it made sense. "They just don't know it yet."

Ace sweatdropped.

"I… see."

"Good! 'Cause I and my bigger sister need your help." She chirped. "Varley-nee pulled a goof and got in trouble! So Dahlia-nee and I need to help her- and that's where you come in! We'll be heroes~"

She wiggled her eyebrows. As if that would convince him, which- it did quite the obvious.

"Me?" He sputtered out a short laugh and Ace shook his head, "Look I think you got the wrong idea. I ain't no hero, I'm a Pi-"

When he turned to try and explain to the kid that no, he was not a hero and would not be doing any special excursions as one, he wasn't expecting to barrel face first into a rock wall. "GAH!"

He was sent spread-eagle on his back. Hat falling off to cover his face, groaning, and slurring out, "Who puts a wall in the middle of the street…"

"Oops, sorry! Coming in a little hot there aren't you?"

Not a wall then. Definitely not a wall.

"Who…?" Ace cut himself off, shaking his head. "Ah, Ma' am, sorry for bumping into you. My apologies."

"Oooh~ you got us a polite one Maple!"

"Dahlia!" Maple squealed. "Okay- you're here now too! That means we can get started."

The woman, a brunette, Dahlia he was guessing, laughed boisterously. And her whole body shook beneath the noise- to the point where Ace had to stick a finger in his ear to try and clear out the ringing that came from it. "I'm glad as well!" She winked, "...little sister!"

"AH- YOU HEARD?!"

"Indeed I did, sweetie! Varela's gonna make fun of you~"

"Noooo-!"

Ace coughed into his fist. "Pardon me-" He grimaced when they both turned to him with wide, hoping looks. "But I think I should be going-!"

"Nope."

"Sorry."

"No can do."

They each patted their hands onto his shoulder in apology- subsequently pulling him back in the same motion. Voices equal amounts deadpan and leaving absolutely no room for argument. Ace twitched, failing to keep away his disgruntled sneer, "I'm not a hero-!" He argued. "I'm not going to help anybody if it makes me one- I'm a Pirate!"

They glanced at each other in unison.

Ace sighed, "Look- Let me explain. You see a hero is someone who, say, has a piece of meat and will divide it amongst everyone! But a Pirate will-"

"-Feast on all of it themselves!"

"Right!" he grinned. "See- you get it! Wait… YOU GET IT?!"

Dahlia snickered, "Of course! It's only logical."

Maple nodded to herself proudly, "Naturally. Naturally."

"So then…" he tried, "I can go explore?"

"No~ope!"

"Why the hell not?! If you get it-"

Dahlia cut him off with a joyful grin, "Because it's even better if you're not a hero!"

"Yeah, yeah!"

"You just said that you needed to save your sister!" Ace accused. "Varley- or something!"

"Varela!" Dahlia corrected.

"But if you're a pirate then we won't have to deal with any of that moral crap!" Maple sung. "It's just so much easier this way."

"Morals?" Ace repeated. Freezing, making a face, fists suddenly at the ready and snapping, "I ain't killin' anybody for you!"

"No, no, no, no!" They quickly reassured, horrified. Realizing how he made the insinuation. "No killing!"

His scowl fell away, and he lowered his hands. But Ace still narrowed his eyes at them suspiciously, "Then what did you mean by morals?"

Dahlia hummed, tapping the pads of her fingers together. Both her and Maple glanced to each other in unison and, with a count of three, opened their mouths and said:

"Well, it's simple really-"

"-a big part of the story you see-"

"-our little dearie, Varela, as you now know-"

"-is in trouble with the Marines, or so we've been told!"

Dahlia finished with, "And her execution is scheduled in just an hour!"

The hell? Why were they switching back and forth?

Ace tilted his head with a sudden realization. "You mean the execution that those guys mentioned?!" He gaped. What a coincidence. "She's your sister?" At incredibly high speeds they nodded their confirmation. He gave them an even more suspicious look than he had before, "...What'd she do?"

They jumped back in offense.

"What's with that look?!"

"What makes you think she did anything?!"

"Uuuh-" He chuckled incredulously before stating the obvious, "She's being executed."

They're mouths froze open.

"...Oh yeah."

"YOU FORGOT?!" He slapped the air.

"Whoopsies~"

He facepalmed.

Maple frowned suddenly, clenching her fists. Finally attempting to answer his question,"We're not too sure what for."

"Huh?"

"She didn't do anything. Well-" she paused. "Yeah. No."

"What was the well for?"

"She's kind of a jerk."

"Yep."

Both his eyebrows shot up, "So she's getting executed… because she's kind of a jerk...?"

Maple blushed, "I said I wasn't sure!"

"She hasn't exactly done anything illegal," Dahlia explained, "At least not to our knowledge and the Marines refused to explain. Apparently her boss, Roddie, is in on it or something though. He's been paying her visits and hanging around the Marines and- that in itself is pretty shocking."

"He's not a people person and he hates the Marines!"

"I might be starting to see why." Dahlia grumbled. "But, anyways, since the Marines refuse to tell us why- without making up some bullish excuse-"

 _Bullish?_ "You mean bullshi-?"

"Shh. Dahlia doesn't like cursing!"

"-Maple and I have decided to perform a heist. To be her saviors!" She chirped before stabbing a finger at him, "And you'll be helping us!"

"No way!" He denied.

"You don't have a choice- sorry, not sorry!"

"THE HELL I DON'T!" Ace snapped his jaw shut tightly. Taking in a deep breath to calm down, failing completely to keep his face straight. "I'm not interested in being a savior. Wish I could help you but you guys can save her yourself-"

"Here." Dahlia held up a basket filled to the brim with bread and treats. "I have some snacks that you can have if you promise to help us."

"Deal."

He didn't even hesitate to snatch it up and sit down, already tearing through the food.

"Ah- just like that?"

Maple threw up her hands, "YAAAAAY!"

Dahlia pressed a hand to her lips. Failing to keep in the bout of laughter that shook through her, "Hahahahahaha! That was so easy! Why didn't you just say that you needed some incentive?!"

"Didn't know you had any!" Ace grinned, swallowing. "So- what's the plan to get Varrie out?"

"Varela!"

"That's what I said."

"No it-"

Dahlia tapped a finger to her chin, "Well… since a Vice-Admiral is also coming to this island everyone is distracted preparing the docks for his arrival, including the Marines, so I'm hoping that we're going to have a pretty straight shot at getting over to her! But~ We need someone to distract the guards so we can get through and bust her out. That's where you come in!"

"I'm just distracting?" Ace blinked. "If you had just said that in the first place I would've done it."

"You would've?"

"...No."

He admitted. He probably wouldn't have even thought of helping.

It didn't help their case that they were both mighty suspicious-looking.

Well, whatever. Maybe he'd get a bounty out of messing with the Marines? That possibility certainly bolstered the deal.

Dahlia snorted, "Varela was taken a few days ago. So I bet she's getting real impatient right around now- so let's hurry-" she pointed towards the obvious shape of a Marine base, "-thattaway!"

"Onwards!" Maple screeched.

Then they both took off down the street.

Ace watched them leave. Staring at the half empty basket of food and sighing. He could take off if he wanted to but… "Made a deal, better get to keeping it…!" Besides, from the sound of it this Varela chick might have quite the story behind her attempted execution. "Wonder if she'll be willing to tell it to me! I'm sure I'll have time-" maybe he could scrounge some more food out of her and her sisters, even. "-and she might even be interested in joining my crew!" Ace realized with a start. "Shit! I gotta catch up with them then!"

...

...

A pair of dead deer hanging over each shoulder and a grin on his face Luffy was having a pretty typical day on Mt. Colubo. Well, as normal as it could be considering he was a rubber teenager with the mind of a child and the attention span of a cricket running around without supervision in a forest that made most grown men wet their pants...

So not a very typical or normal day, huh?

"Gum Gum…"

Made all the more odd given that he was ducking and weaving around a particularly ferocious bunch of wolves that clearly had not gotten the memo to not mess with the best.

"KIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!"

He shouted coolly, landing a kick into the chest of a large wolf. Followed by the loud and sickening sound of what was probably a ribcage collapsing.

And, of course, everyone knew that if you named your attack it would be stronger and look totally AWESOME.

...Except he didn't like that name for this attack.

Namely because it wasn't exactly a kick. It was bent and curved. Not straight on.

"Hmmmmm..." he crossed his arms, coming to an immediate halt. The wolves all froze in their jumping (the ones who weren't knocked away that is) and stared at him cautiously. "Gum Gum... kick? No. Circle? Booo~ no."

He pulled his leg back and huffed, "Come on. Come on!"

His face turned a bright, bright red.

Pretty sure it was going to start steaming soon...

"That's it!" Luffy shouted, the painful feeling finally alleviating, "I've got it!"

He suddenly noticed the absence of the deers around his shoulders, "EEEEH?! MY MEAT?!"

Growling ravenously he spun around and looked all around himself. It took a bit but soon he was chasing down the pack that were desperately trying to make their escape through the trees. "You bastards! Get back here- That's my meat!"

He sucked in a breath and swung his leg around, "Gum Gum...!"

As if sensing the coming danger the wolves let out high pitched whimpers of pain and sorrow and misery and of all the things they knew were to come.

"WHIIIIIIIIPPPPP!"

The wolves went flying away.

Luffy pouted before picking up the bitten and chewed on carcasses, "My meat...! Stupid wolves."

He gasped as he picked up the second deer, oh no, one of the wolves had taken one of the legs! Oh man... If Ace were here he would have stopped them before they took his food in the first place. Luffy clenched his fists with a fire in his eyes and began making his way towards Dadan Country, which was thankfully, just around the corner a ways.

"Hmmph! I can do this myself."

'Cause Ace wasn't here anymore- which meant he had to be the one to stop them next time. After all Ace had just left five days ago and was off on his own adventure now! He grinned and shivered excitedly. Just three more years and it'd be his turn!

"Ooouu…" he still whined.

It was pretty lonely without them.

"Ace, Sabo! I'm next okay? Have fun!" He grinned widely. "I can't wait!"

"Oi, brat!" Dadan shouted from inside the hut, "You got food huh?"

"Yeah! The wolves chewed on them a bit though..." he added the last part with a frown.

"Whaaaaaa-?! Go throw them back!" Dadan screamed. "Go get somethin' else!"

He shrieked at the order. Clueless as to why.

"What?! Why?"

Dadan stomped towards him, looking incredibly pissed off- which was normal.

"Erk... And where's Ace? He should be with... you..." Dadan slowed down. " _Oh_ , right."

"Ah- are you missing him, Boss?" Dogra and Magra stepped up from somewhere. Luffy bounced from foot to foot, pouting. Were they ignoring him?

"No of course not," she snapped furiously, "you shitty bastards! Wah-ha-ah!"

The fact that she had pulled out a box of tissues and begun sobbing loudly as soon as she finished saying that said otherwise and the two bandits sweat dropped.

Dogra looked over at Luffy, "Oh, did you bring back food, Luffy?"

He perked up at the attention, "Yeah but Dadan wants me to get rid of it."

"I'm sure we can cook around the bitten bits," he assured the straw hat wearing teenager who nodded enthusiastically despite not getting why they would want to cut around it. It was just a bit nibbled on. And, after all, all meat was good meat!

"Ah- it's a good thing Garp had business to take care of before he could come back to the East Blue otherwise Ace would have been taken off to the Marines," Dogra mentioned to Magra. Luffy blinked between the two dumbly with a grin on his face.

"Yes. Apparently he ran into a bit of a fight with a big name pirate on the way out of the Grand Line. He has to restock at some Island called Saigen too, before he comes over here."

Dadan suddenly froze in her sobbing and looked over at the two with almost robotic movements, "...That's where he was heading."

"What?" They slowly looked towards her.

"Yeah Ace said there was an island called Saigen nearby that was supposed to have lots and lots of food- it did trading or something!" Luffy chirped. "Mou~ I wish I could go."

There was a long pause.

All their faces turned pale.

"OH NO!"

...

...

"Hi," he whispered, blinking wildly.

She couldn't help but jump back a few steps.

Quinn swallowed nervously, "...hey… there?" She didn't know whether to slink into a dark corner and hide or poke him in the eyes to get him to go away. She settled, reluctantly she might add, on shuffling her feet and crossing her arms over her body, simply returning the wide stare he offered her.

And wide stare it was. He was glancing around and trying to squeeze in better to get a good look at… her? The room? She didn't really know, didn't really care all that much either, but couldn't help but compare the feeling to being an animal trapped in the zoo. If this was how zoo animals felt being gawked at, well, they certainly had her sympathies.

She shuddered uncontrollably.

"Can I… help you?"

He scrunched up his face even further. Which seemed painful. He was already twisted to press his cheek into the ground and was trying squeeze his face into the small, barred space that was her cell window. From the looks of it he was laying down, chest pressed to the grass, and as close to the building as humanly possible. After a moment of working his jaw so he could speak, instead of slurring out gibberish because of how pressed he was to the bars, he asked, "You Varrie?"

"Varrie?" She choked, incredulous. "Uh- do you mean Varela?"

He grinned. Squished and blinding, not unlike the sun. "Yeah, that!"

Quinn squinted.

He sounded… remotely familiar, a sort of vague itch at the back of her head.

"...That's me." She eyed him suspiciously, "Why're you asking?"

"Your sisters asked me to help them!" He chirped. "And you!"

And that cleared up literally nothing.

"Uhhh..." Quinn uncrossed her arms slowly, bemused, wondering just what the hell he was talking about, "I don't… have any sisters."

 _"Ah-"_ she jumped at the surprised note, "Oh, right. That was supposed to be a secret, I forgot! Sorry." He didn't sound apologetic, in fact he sounded pretty happy with himself. "We're gonna break you out!"

"Secret-?" Quinn's mouth fell open, "Break me out?!"

"Yep!"

"Urk- I can guess _who_ then."

She groaned. Dahlia and Maple. And the notion that they were looking to break her out brought on both a shiver of endearment- and annoyance.

"Those idiots…" She snapped her teeth down on her bottom lip and chewed, the skin ripping and tearing to the point where she was pretty sure it was going to start bleeding soon. They were gonna get themselves hurt. "So where are they then?"

"Hm?"

He squeezed in to get a better look, looking left and right; frowning.

"Huh." He blinked. "Don't know."

"...um. What do you mean you don't know?"

"I just figured they'd be here by now, looks like I was wrong." Quinn got the feeling that he was shrugging but she couldn't exactly see much of him to tell. And it certainly wasn't helping her increasing paranoia and overall befuddlement.

He held out a basket, somehow working his arm through the bars without moving his face, "Snack?"

Well, that was Dahlia's stuff at least, so she could guess he was telling the truth.

Still, she hesitated in taking the proffered treat, snagging an exceptionally small biscuit-like cookie, "-Thanks." Quinn couldn't help but glare at it. She hadn't eaten in over a day but she strangely wasn't all that hungry and the thought of actually trying to keep something down was a bit sickening. So instead of taking a proper bite all she forced herself to do was nibble on the corner.

"Chehehe- No problem!"

He laughed, shoveling handfuls into his mouth. And- Holy crap. Did he lack a gag reflex? Quinn shuddered. He just kept gorging himself and didn't seem to be stopping. Yeah… she really wasn't hungry anymore. Looking past the… shocking appetite, to say the least, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with him but-

She still couldn't quite place him.

"Uh- not to be rude but who are you?"

She scrunched up her face.

Black hair, freckles, semi-tan skin, a necklace with large red beads, and sunny grin-

Oh god. It was Ace.

As if to mock her, he confirmed. "I'm Portgas D. Ace. Nice to meet you!"

Grinning up a sunny storm that had her squinting furiously and inwardly cursing up her own storm- outwardly her eye twitched and she somehow managed to keep her voice steady in saying, "Can't say it's the nicest circumstances on my part. But, yeah, nice to meet you too." Before pausing and adding, "Quinn Varela. At your service." In possibly the most dry and hollow tone in her repertoire.

He nodded.

Like, you know, a normal person. And not a comic book (manga… whatever) character. It struck her as so completely odd that Quinn was pretty certain that her brain had just short circuited-

Quinn sighed.

This might as well happen today.

She'd just run with this. Yeah. Best option: not questioning.

...The universe enjoyed needling her, didn't it?

A sudden light came to his eyes and Quinn turned her attention away from her inner turmoil when he drawled, "So what did you do?"

"Huh?"

He gestured with the basket around the room. Quinn distantly wondered if his arm was stuck cause he hadn't pulled it back out, instead reaching his other arm awkwardly in between the bars to snatch up food to… uh... inhale it. That was probably the best word to describe his… rates of consumption. She shivered in disgust- moving on!

She rolled her eyes and helped push his arm back out, shuffling the basket after him. He gave her a grateful and surprised stare- looking delighted, almost. Quinn… wondered what that look meant.

"That's a pretty cliche question." She pointed out, the barest bit amused. ""What're you in for?""

"Well, what are you in for?" He pressed.

She shrugged, "I ate a Devil Fruit that Roddie wants- my ex-employer and the current keeper of all my hatred -so he's planning on having me executed. That way, he can get it. Which, by the way, I would very, very much like to punch him in the face for."

Oh yeah, that was a long time coming.

Ace seemed taken aback. "What? That's it?!"

"I think it would be very therapeutic actually." She rambled. "Maybe I could do a bit more but I'm kinda going to die pretty soon so I don't really think I have many options right now-"

"No, no, no!" Ace exclaimed, raising up his hands. "I mean… that's it? That's the only reason that they're planning on executing you. Because you ate a Devil Fruit."

Oh.

"Sounds stupid, doesn't it?"

"Yeah! Quite a bit!" He scowled, "What- and the Marines won't do anything?!"

"They're the ones holding the execution- and organizing it."

He looked distinctly taken aback for half a second at that, something a little dark and personal passing over his face, before scowling even further, muttering, "Should've guessed…!" Before raising his voice, "What about the islanders?"

"They kinda hate me." She frowned. "I think. Or, they don't know. Or care enough. I'm just an outsider here-" She probably wouldn't care about anyone she didn't know or like being executed either. "Honestly, still kinda reeling from you telling me about Dahlia and Maple. Didn't think they'd…" she trailed off. Yeah. Immensely flattering that they were trying to break her out.

Ace looked at her in disbelief. He cleared his throat, "So the Marines are executing you because somebody wants your Devil Fruit and nobody cares but your sisters-"

"Not my sisters. Friends, I guess, but not siblings."

"-and you didn't think anybody'd come and help you?" Ace asked. Unsettled. They had seemed pretty sure about themselves and the rescue- adamant. He had figured that their sister- sorry, _friend_ would've been expecting saviors to come based on the pairs attitude. Quinn didn't have much of a reaction to the question, though she did wince, and try and give a- half assed- explanation. Ace pressed his lips together in a thin line, narrowing his eyes, and sucked in his bottom lip. Thoughts running a mile a minute.

"To be fair, I'm not the most optimistic of people." She offered. "But, I mean, yeah, sounds like a pretty shitty set of circumstances. Especially when you put it like that. And, I'll tell you, it is. Trust me, I got the experience." Quinn snorted.

"Yeah, I can see that!" Ace grumbled. The look on his face, Quinn hid a smile, was pouty; cheeks puffed up slightly. "What even is your Devil Fruit?"

Quinn couldn't help but let the grin slip, in a sort of ghastly amusement. "Get this. I don't actually know. Nobody's told me and I haven't been able to figure it out."

He swallowed his food sharply, coughing. "You have no idea?!"

"Zippo."

That only seemed to make him even more huffy and puffy.

Quinn sighed. "Dahlia and Maple were trying to help me figure it out but… no. Actually. Where-" She furrowed her brow. "Where are they?"

"You already asked that."

"Yeah. But unless they gave up-"

Ace was quick to shoot that idea down.

"Then they should be here by now." Quinn glanced back across her cell towards the shut exit door. "I mean, you beat them here. What were they doing? I- actually, how were you supposed to help them?" She narrowed her eyes. As far as she could see he hadn't done anything but offer food and kick back and interrogate her.

"Oh, I was supposed to distract the Marines while they snuck in to get you out." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, shuffling aside. "But I think it was a bit of an overkill on my part. Sorry."

"What do you mean- oh my god."

Quinn's mouth fell open as he rolled out of the way. Revealing a line of downed and out Marines, all unconscious and nursing bruises that they'd definitely be feeling tomorrow. A very literal path of destruction.

She swallowed, unsure of what to say.

"That's… impressive?"

He chortled. "Glad to find out they deserved it."

"Don't worry they did. But- uh- you didn't… _kill_ anybody did you?"

Ace looked decently offended, but begrudgingly accepted the question since he couldn't really fault her for it. "No!" He still exclaimed defensively, "What do you take me for?!"

"So far? Not much."

He grumbled, rolling back into place. Returning to the problem at hand- "But you're probably right. They should've been here by now. They went in the building to get to you so maybe they ran into trouble?"

Quinn sagged in clear disappointment, or annoyance. He couldn't quite place it. "...yeahhh… probably…" Those two had no sense of self preservation. "Whatever. No use in worrying I guess."

A grin split over his face, "Hey, if it's any consolation, they're probably fine. They seemed pretty determined and people like that aren't gonna be taken down so easily!"

Quinn snorted, "Or they're too dumb to fail. Like goddamn cockroaches."

"And that just means I can ask you what I've been meaning to ask you!" Ace chirped. Okay, the suspicious look was back again. He raised his hands up in the universal symbol for peace(or surrender, but he didn't seem the type to do that) and grinned, "It's not bad, I swear!"

"Sorry if that doesn't exactly fill me with confidence…"

He continued on, without a care in the world.

"Wanna join my crew?"

Quinn choked.


	3. Saigen II

Roddie sighed, dragging a thumb over his teeth impatiently. "Everything in order?"

"From the looks of it? Yeah. Everything seems to be going perfectly."

"Update on the Vice-Admiral?"

The blonde closed his eyes, eyebrows pulling downward as he concentrated. "You'll hear for yourself in a second-" Neither had to wait long before cheers erupted somewhere outside the Marine base. Signaling to everyone that the Marine vessel carrying the aforementioned-marine was pulling to shore.

"Okay." He rubbed his temples, "And I have the fruit right here. We're already working on a tight schedule with some Vice-Admiral showing up, so let's hope that nothing else goes wrong."

"Cross my fingers, hope to die." The Marine deadpanned, holding up a gloved hand with crossed fingers.

"Fufufu. Don't be so dramatic."

"Cross my fingers, hope to get sick?"

"Better."

"Doesn't roll off the tongue as well as the first though."

"Or, in your case, _teeth,_ " he teased.

If the sick mask wasn't covering up the majority of his face Roddie would've been able to see him blush at the jab, but instead he ducked his head and scraped a hand through his hair. Dark orange eyes flashing in annoyance as he dabbed a hand against the cloth shyly, "Hey, don't bring that up!" He grumbled. "That can't be getting out while we're here."

"Well it's a good thing we won't be here for long then! I want to see your pretty face~" He sung, skipping down the hallway. "Let's gather the guards and perform a proper Marine execution- it'll go right alongside all the rest of the private executions that they don't want the rest of the world to see or know about!"

"I think you're thinking more of the Word Government."

"Ehh~ either or. Let's not discriminate."

"Of course not, that would be rude."

They had returned to the Marine base with a plant in tow and were making their way back to Quinn's cell, a surprising lack of Marines waited for them. Much to their surprise, even as they continued, not a single officer was to be seen. Roddie brought a finger up to his mouth and bit down hard on the digit, gnawing on it nervously. "Where the hell are they? They're supposed to be here to execute her."

"You're getting anxious again. Calm down."

"I'm not." Roddie huffed, "These losers can never do their job correctly. Even when you're manipulating them to do your bidding!"

"Just-" and his partner stopped abruptly, tilting his head. "You hear that?"

Roddie froze, glancing back at the blonde, following his gaze to a split in the hallway they had just passed. He narrowed his eyes, "Yeah… what the hell are those two doing here?" He wrinkled his nose.

They backpedaled, catching sight of the pair failing to hide behind a pair of barrels.

 _"Psst- did Roddie just go by?"_

 _"Yeah- with some hot blonde!"_

Said 'hot blonde' flashed Roddie a peace sign and got a mouthed "screw you" in return.

There was a loud thwack.

 _"Owie."_

 _"You're twelve- don't be a pervert just yet. Wait a few years."_

 _"But Ace was cute and he let me feel him up…."_

 _"What?!"_

 _"I m-mean- I don't think Varley-nee will approve of you saying that-"_

 _"Well, she's not here! And I'm the older sister… I think. I'm mid-twenties, and she's… early twenties at least."_

 _"Yeesh. You're both so old."_

They glanced at each other, approaching quietly as another loud thwack sounded. Listening intently to the horribly-whispered conversation as it slowly picked up.

"Do you think they're gone?"

"Yeah. I don't hear anything."

"Good. We can get to saving Varela now-"

Okay, they were done Roddie decided, not having to hear another word. He coughed into his fist and their heads went popping up to meet his grin.

"Hi."

Both their jaws dropped- equal parts horror and shock.

"Wha-"

"Where-?"

"Jones." He clapped his hands together, smile tight. " _Sic' em."_

...

...

Roddie crossed his arms with an annoyed pout, contemplating his options. "Oh, what to do… what to do…?" Next to him Jones was finishing up on the bindings and glaring at their new companions. He looked rumpled and uncomfortable. As he always did when forced into the steam-cleaned and pressed Marine uniform and mask. Though he was still too handsome for his own good in it. Roddie glanced at the ceiling, letting out a sigh.

This was tiring, at this point. And the only thing to rectify the situation was…

He scowled.

"I think that's enough hiding then."

Jones perked up.

"Let's change up the plan a bit. Be like normal pirates." Roddie made a face. He hated when they had to cut things short. "Damn it... I wanted to keep this up!"

Jones let out a relieved laugh and stretched out his arms, whipping off the medical mask from down around his mouth and revealing a sharp grin. "Goddamnit, finally. Been wanting to get out of this place for months now."

"You've barely been here for one." Roddie deadpanned, uncrossing his arms and tossing him a jacket buried somewhere in his shirt. "And you didn't even do anything, Jones."

The jacket was a simple deep red, bright and striking. It was made of a thick material and had an asymmetrical zipper that went to just below his chin, long sleeves and high collared- the printed image of a bowl of ramen crested on his breast and the words Noodle Man stood proud over another on his back. He wiped a gloved hand over his face and flicking away a bit of off color, almost orange, drool from around his mouth.

Jones slid a long flat tongue over his rows of sharp, terrifying teeth- they protruding like needles, clamping around each other where a mouth should be. "Felt like a year honestly! I don't know how you do it."

Roddie's lips quirked up in an amused smirk. "Patience, I guess. Besides it's fun seeing people's faces when they figure out it was us the whole time."

Jones barked a laugh. "Nuhu! You bet! You think they would learn by now you know?"

There was a high squeal, they ignored it.

"Good to see you as yourself." Roddie smiled, uncrossing his arms and patting the blonde on the back. "Now that we can talk freely: How have the rest of the crew been?"

"Since you last saw them? Eh… Antsy, I guess." He fiddled with the guard of a sword- a slick black rapier- and pulled from a bag a long connecting cord, fastening it to the hilt. It looked like a hose.

Dahlia and Maple flinched back as he went about connecting the sword and hose to a large clear vial with a turnable top, placed in a metal and leather backpack-like binding. He heaved the heavy object onto his back and strapped the many bells and whistles down around his torso. The final bit wrapped around his mouth- a cage of metal, glass, tubes and fixtures -all connecting back to the vial.

"Geez, I know how they feel! Feels good to get back in my gear~" Jones stretched, letting out a self satisfied groan. "It's a good thing the Marines think we're dead after we escaped through the Calm Belt because otherwise they would have been on our asses after that stunt we pulled back in Mariejois."

Roddie smirked. "Yeah…" He drawled and hefted up an incredibly large book. He ran a finger along its old, weathered binding delicately. "But it was worth it, wasn't it?"

There came a muffled shout.

"Oh, right. Them." Roddie spat distastefully.

Jones hummed, leaning into their faces until their noses were practically touching. "I can… take care of them?"

Dahlia glared at them and shoved the squirming Maple behind her protectively.

Bound by ropes. Mouths duct taped shut.

"Leave them." Roddie sniffed. "They're not worth any more time than what we've already wasted on them."

Jones nodded and turned his back on them. It gave Dahlia and Maple the chance to see the steady drip of orange falling into the bottom of the vial slowly, gooping up the base at a steady and rhythmic pace. It looked… unsettling.

Saliva, they realized with a shiver.

And it was even more unsettling thinking about just how much he was drooling in order to create that amount of liquid.

Dahlia growled and managed to tear the tape off her mouth, spitting and biting at the pair. She whipped her arms back and force and winced when the ropes tightened. "You- You won't get away with this!"

"Aw~ don't worry about me, I will." Roddie grinned down at her cheerily, already pulling out some more duct tape. "Sorry, Dahlia, but you were trying to run off with our cash cow."

"Cash cow…?" She blinked, eyes crinkling in thought. When the realization finally came her mouth fell open and she stared at him in horror, "You… You're talking about Varela?"

"Yep, Little Miss Quinn is worth a lot of money." He smirked, "Who do you think turned her into the Marines? It only took some poking and prodding but I eventually managed to convince the Marine Captain to execute her to get the Devil Fruit back. Of course, they can't even do that right, but all I have to do is kill her before the Vice Admiral arrives, create some chaos, and run away with my crew!"

"The Devil Fruit?!" Dahlia shrieked. "You're gonna kill her over a Devil Fruit?!"

"Yep!"

"Of all the vile, nasty, criminal-!"

Jones slid the tip off his sword to her throat, muttering a deadly, "Shut up," at the same time that Roddie poked at the edges of his wide smile and purred out, "Pirate~!"

Dahlia instantly choked and lost every hint of color. Jones glared, face darkening, "That's my Captain you're speaking to," he spat, "don't you dare insult him. Show some respect, lest you face the consequences, sweet cheeks." His thumb hovered over a switch hidden along the shoulder of his rapiers quillon-

There was a loud gasp.

"Jones-" Roddie squealed, "-you're my hero~!"

Maple flinched at the pitch- shuddering. He sounding like a lovestruck schoolgirl.

Said "heroic" Jones slowly glanced back over his shoulder to give his captain a disgruntled, peeved look. Roddie chuckled at the expression, "Fufufu- stand down, Jone~sy! I don't mind... After all my agenda is far from ethical and it does end with a murder, of her friend nonetheless!"

The blonde sighed, pulling his sword away from her neck and sliding it back into its sheath, walking away with a grumble to stand against the furthest wall. Dahlia swallowed nervously. Wondering if she could speak without… eliciting the pirates guard dog. But, now that he had backed off, and the terror was slowly ebbing away to a frightened chill, her lack of self control was already forming more words. Roddie grinned indulgently- amused. "Why? What Devil Fruit could she possibly have that you would want to kill her over-?!"

The book he cradled was shoved in front of her face.

"Do you know what this is?"

"I- a book?"

"Yes," he rolled his eyes, "but more specifically?"

"...no?"

"This right here is a special book, a little thing that we went through quite a bit of trouble picking up. An important piece of text that the Government and many others would kill for," he announced, "all the way from the Holy City, a piece written by the infamous Vegapunk- The Complete Devil Fruit Encyclopedia. Well, only those known, but still invaluable in its own right…"

"So you know what Varela's Devil Fruit is?! We've been trying for forever and couldn't figure it out- if you knew, why didn't you tell us-?!"

"Didn't want to. Obviously." Roddie snorted. "If it hasn't gotten through your thick skull already… I don't like you. Besides I owed you no favors."

Dahlia gaped.

"But, as I was monologuing, this particular book is a pretty little amalgamation of information: from powers, to previous users, to little descriptions of how they can be used, but~ I find the most important bit in here is this!"

She felt her face drain of all color, eyes blown wide in shock.

"The Blackmarket Prices!"

Roddie thrust the book forward without a thought, flipped open to a familiar fruit.

"Worth an astounding 1 Billion Berries- The Luck Luck Fruit!"

...

...

It strangely wasn't a hard decision to come to, Ace realized before he asked. It wasn't even that he had thought all that hard about it, he was just asking before he could really form a coherent thought, focused more on the gut feeling that Varela seemed like she'd make a decent pirate. Which was weird because he was pretty sure that most people relied on more than guts to decide their crew- especially their first ever crewmate- and even Luffy would probably put more thought into who he'd choose but… He pursed his lips. Varela looked… pretty pathetic honestly, but there was a clear defiance in her eyes and the way she spoke held a contempt for the Marines and an unbridled fury that Ace could definitely relate to.

Well, she could always say no, and if she did say yes and turned out to be a waste of space- he was the Captain and could kick her out if need be. Call it her lucky day or whatever, but Ace decided it couldn't hurt to ask.

But Quinn's answer was more or less unintelligible nonsense.

Ace blinked.

That was… not what he was expecting.

She pumped a fist against her chest, catching her breath, and coughing out a shocked, "W-What?"

"Join my crew!" He repeated. "I'm starting up a pirate crew and could use some new members."

"No I got that much. But- like, why?"

"Why?" He repeated. "'Cause I asked you to. Isn't that obvious?"

It must have shown on her face because Ace scrunched up his nose at her dubious stare. And Quinn, slowly, spoke up, "I am in jail. And have a pending execution. I wouldn't say that I'm exactly the best to ask. And so soon after meeting too."

"So you want to die?" He returned, equally slow. "I mean, sure, if you want, but I am pretty much offering to help break you out."

Quinn shrugged, pressing her lips together thinly.

"Uhh- can I give you some advice first?" She tried hesitantly.

He blinked. Once, twice, then again. Clearly more than a little bemused before tilting his head and offering a reluctant, "...Sure?"

"I don't think blackmailing future crewmates is a good business practice. You might want to switch it up a bit." She deadpanned.

Ace at least had the decency to rub the back of his neck sheepishly, "Chehehe- is that a yes?"

"I-"

It wasn't as if she had much of a choice, she ran a hand through her hair. Ew. Gross. She needed a shower. And taking a look back at the cell the decision was pretty obvious- but Quinn was still a tiny bit stubborn. "I guess, but- uh, again, why?"

He tilted his head, confused.

"I mean- I'm not exactly worth anything. I'm stuck in a cell. Sure the Marines were jerks to me but I'm pretty sure they're like that with everybody who doesn't write their paycheck-" she rambled, "It would be more trouble going out of your way to help me than it would be finding your original crew… errr, someone else. Not that I would know. And even though I would like to think that I got all the luck in the world... let's face it, I'm stuck in a dark cell halfway underground and that's not even counting the fact that I most definitely smell something rank right now-"

This was all so freaking weird.

Ace chortled, "You talk too much."

She gaped, mouth hanging open. "Thanks," she squeaked before biting her lip thoughtfully, "Excuse me if I'm hesitant-"

"You have a dream?" He interrupted.

Quinn jumped, thrown for a loop. "Huh. I- yeah? I mean." Her teeth tightened around her lip and she blushed- "Kinda lame though. Please don't ask."

Ace raised a brow but luckily didn't comment. He didn't look like he believed her. But a grin still spread across is face, strong and blinding.

Goddamnit, Quinn had sunspots in her eyes now.

"Then, come on, it'll be fun~" He smirked. "Let's live without any regrets, yeah?! ...I mean, if you don't, you'll probably die."

She finally slumped. Accepting him as her best route with a sigh, "This cell was beginning to become a sight for sore eyes anyways. Besides I don't think I have much time left before-"

Quinn froze.

You know that feeling you get when you have the desperate urge to do something- like when you suddenly need to walk around, go for a run, grab something, or have an itch that you need to scratch? Well, that's the closest thing that Quinn could describe it as. A feeling. Only it happened after the fact, leaving her feeling especially strange and anxious. Like whatever happened beforehand was something entirely under her control and, at the same time, wasn't.

In this case- it was her slipping.

A good thing she did too. Otherwise she would have a bullet buried in the back of her skull.

"Varela?! What the hell was that?!" Ace shouted from behind the bars, squeezing his face in as best he could to try and get a good look at the scene. Yeah, Quinn dizzily placed a hand on her head, eyes finding the chink of rock where the bullet had shattered, she definitely didn't have much time left at all. "Who shot-?"

"Whoops."

Came a very obnoxious voice, airy and with a nonchalance to match her levels of annoyance.

"I missed. That hasn't happened in awhile."

"You!" Ace snapped, stabbing a finger in his direction. "You're that… that…" He rubbed his fingers together when a name failed to come to mind.

"Roddie."

"Right!" He snapped his fingers. "The rude-guy!"

He looked faintly amused.

Quinn groaned, "Yeah, him." When she slipped she must have hit her head incredibly hard because she could feel herself choking back her own nausea. "Ow…" She shook her head, which was a bad idea considering it sent a tremor throughout her limbs, and stared back at Roddie and his bodyguard-companion.

A fine dust filtered over her vision. Making her blink wildly, a mark covered her hand, a gold and bright smudge of color. It fluttered into the air- than, like it was never there, it disappeared.

"Ooh- looks like the Devil Fruit's finally at play."

Oh. So that's what that was.

Her vision tunneled a bit, and she leaned back to press herself against the wall of her cell, more than a little swept off her game. The pistol clicked and she swallowed nervously. "You know, how about you not kill me?" She tried. "That seems like a pretty reasonable option don't you think?"

"Ha." Roddie deadpanned. "Funny."

"Well, have you tried it?" Quinn asked, voice dry. "I- I go long periods of time without killing anybody and its worked out pretty well for me-"

She glanced back at Ace, panicking, they needed to get out of here now. Thankfully he'd realized her attempt to stall for what it was and was pulling violently on the windows bars. They bent further beneath each jerk.

Roddie snorted, undeterred. "Heh- we all have our dry seasons Quinn! I wouldn't worry about it!"

He aimed.

"A-Ace, now would be a good time _to_ -!"

Whatever she way going to say she didn't get time to finish.

There was an explosion of dust and rubble. The wall to their left ruptured.

In the same moment that Ace managed to rip the bars out of place a low, slowly building sound coming from a place somewhere deep, deep down, rumbled into the room. As if hearing the noise the dust that billowed and stung quivered in the air, dropping to settle on the now dirt covered floor. Roddie and Jones took a step back. And if Quinn was seeing things correctly they suddenly looked like their worst nightmare had been realized and Ace himself got the fabulous experience of feeling all the color draining from his body trying to take his soul out along with it, letting out a high pitched strangled noise.

The room hushed before- "BWAHAHA! NOW WHAT'S THIS I HEAR ABOUT PIRATES?!"

Ladies and gents. Garp has entered the building.

The resulting silence was deafening.

Ace was the first to speak.

"Varela…" Ace breathed, sweat running down his face and looking, dare she say, nervous. "Take my hand. Now."

He offered his hand slowly, like a deer caught in headlights, and shifted anxiously while he waited. Quinn took a moment to take in the gaping Roddie and Jones, the goliath of a man that stood before them, and the cackling Maple and Dahlia that strutted into the room after him with all the canash they could manage- She slapped her hand down on top of Ace's without another second's hesitation. "Good idea!"

She was hefted through the window without having to so much as move, feeling like her arm was gonna fall off as her and Ace bolted from the scene like the dogs of hell were on their heels.

Which, given the booming laughter behind them, and Ace's horrified mutters, they might as well have been.

"Why is he here? _Why is he here? **Why is he here?!"**_

-0-

 _Roughly two minutes earlier:_

They were in a storage closet.

Locked away from wandering eyes and prying ears all they could really do was make muffled squeaks and squirm wildly in their bindings. Dahlia squealed something that sounded suspiciously like cursing. The fresh piece of duct tape on her mouth itched and she snapped what part of her jaw she could make work to try and get a firm hold on it. If she could just chew through it, or lick it enough that the sticky bits started to loosen, then she could call for help from the Marines and tell them about Roddie's undercover piracy.

But the new tape on her face held strong and proud. It just wanted to piss her off.

Dahlia tugged harshly against the ropes, thrashing wildly. The action something that she stopped almost immediately with a strangled whine- her back cramping and her shoulders aching.

"Ooooagh…" she moaned a whine into the tape.

Maple whipped her head around at the low complaint, eyes wide. "Mnff- Dah- don't mofshh-!" She squeaked.

 _Don't move!_

She nodded. Varela was probably curled up in her prison cell awaiting her death sentence at the hands of a backstabbing Pirate, they needed to get out of here quick to help her! For that, they needed a plan. Maple shifted, lips and teeth curling around the tape. She sucked it in and rolled it down until it was at her chin- "There!"

She huffed, breathing heavily, "I-hoof- did it-huff! I'm gonna- _phaa_ -!"

Maple made a face, sticking her tongue out.

"GAH! That tastes so gross!" She spat and sputtered, screaming about the disgustingly bitter taste the tape left on her lips.

Dahlia snorted a laugh from around her tape- Her face shifted three different shades of green in the span of a second and contorted in such a comically way that Dahlia couldn't stop the shudders of giggling.

But finally, Dahlia breathed a sigh of relief, they could get some help.

"Heyoooooo!" Maple bellowed, "HELP! WE'RE TIED UP! THERE'RE PIRATES HERE SO WE NEED YOU TO HURRY! On the double, damn it!"

She clapped her hands behind her back as if it would make somebody hurry to their rescue.

They waited a moment.

Nothing.

Dahlia let out a muffled shout.

Not to be outdone, Maple chirped up determinedly. "...Imma just gonna be as loud as I can then!"

Dahlia nodded, eyes glaring at the door and willing it to open with a helping hand on the other side while Maple opened her mouth and let out a high pitched shriek, screeching and hollering to the point that Dahlia could only pick out a few words from the mess of shouts. She yipped and snorted and screamed and-

There was a crash.

-Maple slammed her mouth shut. The snap of her jaw closing made a painful creak when her teeth slammed together and she ground them together awkwardly, trying to roll the uncomfortable feeling away.

"Did somebody hear us?" She muttered, ear pressed against the wall. "Hey-! Hello-! Anybody there?!"

What they expected was to hear footsteps slowly approaching their place and for some nervous Marine to call out to them. Then, they would call him forth and he could help them out of their frightening circumstances so that they could continue on with their main journey- to save Quinn! What they didn't expect however…

 _...was this._

"Grah!" The wall crumbled into pieces before their very eyes in a man shaped hole as a bulldog appeared from the rumble. "What's this I hear?!"

Okay, so not a bulldog then. Maple let out a shriek and Dahlia just blinked her eyes rapidly as her brain tried to come to terms with what she was seeing.

It was… a man, alright. But his shoulders were so broad, his chest built like a barrel of rippling muscle alone, and his fists were seemingly almost as large as his head. He was wearing some hilarious hat that hooked around his jaw and covered his eyes, letting his grin spread freely across his face for all to see- the head of a bulldog.

"Hah?" He froze, feet skidding to a halt on the floor and Dahlia's mind trying to compute the fact that there was a trail of flames left in his wake from the sheer speed his was going at. Quinn would be having a heart attack at the impossibility of it all. But Dahlia had been hanging around Quinn for a little too long- so instead of freaking out like a… ahem, *cough cough*... _"Normal person"_ she simply let out a sharp breath through her nose, blinked once to let it pass through her mind and than out her ear, and moved on. "Who're you?!"

"I'm Maple!" Maple shouted her introductions, twisting around to try and get a good look at the Marine. "This is Dahlia-nee! You gotta help us- there's a pirate that's gonna kill Varley-nee."

Dahlia blinked at the swaying coat on the Marines back. Those were only issued to certain ranks and… _Why~_ ! Didn't a little birdie tell her that a Vice Admiral was coming? She smiled into her tape triumphantly.

He leaned down, shoulders bumping against the man-hole he had created. "Pirates- you say?" From out of nowhere a bag of rice crackers appeared in his hands and he stuffed a handful into his mouth.

Dahlia nodded exuberantly, explaining. "Mnfhh! Mn! MnShhphahhfnnhn!"

"Ehhh?! They're planning on killing your friend for her Devil Fruit, have been working undercover for the past year and have the Marines holding the execution?!" He practically covered them with crumbs when he spat out the words in shock.

"Mnhm!"

Maple's mouth fell open. "Woah~ I wasn't able to understand her at all! How did you do that?!"

The Vice Admiral grinned, wide and toothy.

"With…" He leant down on one knee, waves crashing behind him as the sun set behind him. Sparkles rained supreme. "...the Power of Justice."

"...That's so totally rad." Maple's eyes gleamed wide, mouth falling open in pure awe. Dahlia shifted uncomfortably. She felt like she was intruding in on a some powerful moment. That and she was being blinded by some sort of illusion. A sun and crashing waves behind them.

"BWAHAHAHAHA! It is, isn't it?" He bellowed out another laugh, "I like you kid! Now."

He cracked his knuckles.

"Let's go save your sister."

-0-

Jones sucked in a deep breath from in between his teeth.

"So it was Garp."

"Yeah."

"The whole time… the Vice Admiral who you've known was coming for weeks now…" Jones continued. "Was Monkey D. Garp. The one marine… that was our top priority to avoid."

"I know."

"How could you not have known-?!"

" _Jones._ Please. Let's just focus." Roddie groaned, slumping as he ran.

"Just sayin'," he looked ahead, amused, "I take it this means the plan is gonna need a change? Again?"

He wasn't surprised to see Roddie throw up his arms and let out a low whine, "Noooo. I don't wanna change it!" He cried childishly, puffing out his cheeks and ignoring the blondes chuckle. "I hate changin' plans. We already had to once today! The Marines were just too incompetent to execute her themselves-"

"You say that but we currently have a pretty goddamn competent Marine on our tail."

"I… noticed, Jones." He rubbed a hand over his forehead, pointing his gun over his shoulder without so much as a glance and firing away. Garp laughed at the futile attempt to ward him off, making sure to keep the cackled Maple and Dahlia hanging off his shoulders out of harm's way. "What a pain…! Fine, fine, let's do this quick and lickity-split."

"I- That gives me no information, Captain."

"What- isn't it obvious?"

Jones raised a brow.

Roddie huffed, "You go after the twits and see if you can get the fruit. If not… urk. Fine, we'll lose one. Just make sure you don't get hit and I'll try to run Garp away and gather the others so we can blow this joint. I know when to dip. "

"See. Those are terms I can actually understand."

"Whatever, Jonesy." He rolled his eyes, "Here!"

Jones blinked in momentary surprise when the blunette reached into his jacket and tossed something at him, though he quickly understood when he pulled out a potted plant covered with cherries. Catching it and groaning at its size, leaves tickling his nose. "Captain… you know that I'll follow you anywhere right?"

Roddie pursed his lips, wondering where he was going with it. "Yeah?"

His tongue poked out from between his teeth for a moment, not that anybody could see much beneath his mask, before giving him an incredulous look. "This is a tree. You had… a tree. In your jacket. How?"

"Please, you don't know everything about me." Roddie snorted, winking. "I could have a raccoon in my shirt and you wouldn't even know, man."

"... _Do_ you have a raccoon in your jacket?"

"Maybe." He hummed, "But that's not important. We meet back up in ten, with or without the fruit. So let's get to it-!"

"YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!"

They turned just in time to spot Garp bearing down on them with a fist reared back. Paling, they glanced at each other from the corner of their eyes in unison, nodding. Garp's fist came down between them, leaving an uncomfortably large crater beneath them as they dodged. Maple yipped and cackled, "Go, go, go! Oh~ the power of justice is so totally rad!"

"Hehehehehe." Dahlia giggled darkly into her hand. "Destroy them, Garp-san!"

Roddie shook his head, shooting Jones a thumbs up, with a winning smirk, "Do your best!"

Jones sighed. This was a huge mess. Well, he let his gaze follow the ripped open wall in the Marine Bases structure, a path of groaning Marines still lying about, he had a pair to trail so he better hurry to follow his Captain's command.

What a day.

...

...

She said it once she'll say it again. "Today is not a good day." She declared loudly this time, to no one in particular. Except maybe Ace. Who turned to check back on her with a bemused look-

Or, it would have looked bemused if he didn't immediately flinch when the whole island seemed to shake. Eye twitching and looking like he half expected his grandfather to jump out in front of them and throw them both through the gates of hell before dragging their asses into an even deeper pit of hellfire and misery. Ah- rampant paranoia, how she missed it. The actuality of someone potentially coming to get them did wonders for her psyche. But, hey, it's not paranoia if they're actually coming to get you, right? _Right?!_

Yeah, so like she said, it was not a good day.

"I'd ask what makes you say that but…" Ace trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck and letting out a strained laugh. "I really didn't expect him to be here if that helps?"

"Not really." She sighed.

Oh, wait, she shouldn't actually know who he is, should she? Well… damn. Now there was the question of whether or not she should play stupid and-

-that seemed like a whole lot of work. And she was not about that right now.

Still, "Sooo~" she drawled, "You haven't properly introduced me to your… should I say, _friend?_ " There was teasing to be had and watching Ace squirm under her dry stare was oddly satisfying. Ha! And he couldn't refute her question either! 'Cause she shouldn't know it automatically.

Ace shuddered visibly. "Hell no."

"Keheh." Her eyes gleamed, and Ace knew that she was definitely messing with him. Somehow. He just couldn't figure out in what way.

"He's my grandfather." He explained simply, brow twitching. "And as you can see…"

There was another tremor.

"He's a bit of a monster." She finished for him succinctly.

"Yep."

"Honestly? You have my sympathies." She clasped a hand over her heart dramatically, or as dramatically as she could manage. Which wasn't a lot. "Woah-" Distracted she almost stumbled over her own feet and went careening into the street, "Oof. Ow." Quinn grimaced and fell into a roll until she was sliding down the last little bit of roof on her back and planting her foot at the edge of the gutter to make the jump to another, thankfully flatter, roof. "Don't mean to pry- no, actually I do. But- uh- why did we take to the roofs?"

"Shortcut." And the explanation is short and stupid but Quinn just shrugs and follows his lead because he goes back to being twitchy once they both realize there hasn't been a peep from Garp in a hot minute. Ace is looking ahead darkly, well not darkly per se, determinedly is probably a better word for it, but its such a turn from the bright smiles and grins he'd been pumping out before that Quinn can't help but feel a little unsettled. So she pursed her lips and focuses on the direction they were heading instead and was unpleasantly surprised to see the crowd still gathered at the docks.

"You're trying to lose him in the crowd." She realizes and Ace blushes for some reason, shoulders coming up to hung his neck.

"Tch. I ain't runnin' or anything, I just don't think it'd be good to fight him on his turf if I have to-" He tried- and failed -to deny the pretty damn obvious reason for them turning tail. Ooh, big manly man who doesn't want to seem like he's on the run.

Quinn nearly rolled her eyes- not that she blamed his running but there's a heat to his words that almost has her snickering until she raises her hands in a sort of 'I get it' fashion- a mistake because she nearly misses a grip and has to practically whip herself over the edge of another roof and slide to her feet in such an uncomfortable move that she's cringing while hopping on one foot.

With a huff of relief once she rights herself she says, "No, no. It's a good idea actually."

Maybe not for the reason that he thinks but, yeah, it's a pretty solid plan. Though, Quinn wondered if that's where his ship is… or if he even had one…

Ace pauses in his running.

Ha. If you could even call it that, he was practically bouncing from rooftop to rooftop.

"Really?" He sounds dubious so Quinn raises a brow at him and completely blows past to scale a wall on one of the taller buildings- hey, wait…

"Yeah. Easier to get lost in crowds. And since he's a Marine he'll have to hold back to not catch any civilians in the mix or do property damage- _but_ from the look on your face I take it he doesn't care." She has to backtrack her thought process almost immediately and can't help but sigh at the uncomfortable and grim set to Ace's face. He grins and pinches the bridge of his hat to nod. "That's great… Need a new plan now."

"Yep." Ace confirmed faltering just a tad.

"Damn it. Ugh. Well, I need to pick up my stuff anyways?" She gestures to a roof that's thankfully not too far away. "Maybe we can come up with something there?"

They can deal with Garp on their tail and potentially Roddie and his little friend later, right now she had some things to pick up.

And since Ace doesn't have any better ideas he readily agreed.

And perks up at the sight she pointed out, "This your place?"

Quinn scowled as they stopped on top of the roof of the East Mail, thankfully with a roof access. It was certainly not a sight he'd been wanting to see but, in this case, it wasn't the worse it could've been.

"You could say that. I bunked here when I could or had to. Most of my stuff is at Dahlia's but…" she shrugs, searching for the roof door. "I don't own much in the first place so I won't really be missing out. Ah- Bingo!"

And there was the door.

There was a unsatisfying click as she went to pull it open… and it was locked. Of course. She closed her eyes for one long, suffering moment. Grumbling and reaching a hand up to pick through her hair, "Great. There goes my bobby pins…"

Ace, who was taking his sweet time in joining her, turned around to find her crouched and hands shaking, eyes narrowed furiously and teeth gnawing on her lip.

All in all, looking like an angry gremlin.

"What're you doing?"

 _"Picking-"_ she fumbled and swore, losing her place, "Picking the lock."

Quinn jumped when Ace was suddenly bearing down on her shoulder with such an intense gaze she felt a shiver run down her spine. "The hell-?"

"You can actually do that?!" He exclaimed. "I thought you had to have like a set or kit or something? I heard that you could do it with pins but whenever I tried they'd just snap before I could do anything!"

Cringing and leaning away at his closeness Quinn focused back on getting through the lock as quickly as possible. "Y-Yeah. I haven't practiced in awhile so I'm a bit slow but it's not that hard once you know how to do it… uh."

There's a relieving click and Ace is looking absolutely awestruck at the now open lock and scraped bobby pins.

"If you wanna grab the lock I can probably show you how to do it later…?" She offers nervously. It seems to be the right thing to say because Ace gives her both an enthusiastic nod and a delightfully surprised look, grabbing the lock and stuffing it in his pants pocket.

"That's so cool!" He jumps in as she opens the door and slides down the small ladder leading into the attic, "Hey, were you lying earlier about not doing anything to get executed? You're not like… a master thief are you?!" He seemed to sparkle at the prospect.

Quinn almost felt bad crushing his hopes. Almost.

"No."

Ace actually booed.

"Kehe- sorry? I just thought it was cool when I was like… twelve, I think, and picked it up using old locks." She frowned, kicking a pile out of the way of the door to finally get to the stairwell leading down to the main room. "Uup- Watch your head."

"Geh-" Ace barely ducked in time to avoid ramming his forehead into the overhang, hissing, "Wait- if you can pick locks then why didn't you just escape from your cell?"

"They usually had a guard posted and I'm not _that_ great at it. The only reason I did the door so fast is because I've done it before." He scowled at the answer. Quinn shuffled a few papers out of the way, "Damn. Where is it?"

Ace looked around the room and whistled. "This place is a mess…" Quinn cringed, nodding her agreement easily enough, eyeing all the garbage around them with clear disgust and went to rifle through drawers and papers quicker. It felt like every new thing she touched was crumpled, stained, or had some other problem.

"Whatcha looking for?"

"Huh? Oh, I had a bag here somewhere with all my stuff. But its been like a week since I've been here and Roddie probably moved it… or threw it out…" She muttered darkly. "It's kinda weird looking; black and white and has Pandaman written on it?"

Ace nodded, beginning to look around himself.

Quinn's chewing on her lip turned thoughtful, "So… pirates, right? That's what we're doing from here on out?"

His head popped up from beneath a desk, "Yffshh!"

Did- Did he start eating one of the old, half eaten burgers-?

Okay. Ew. Gross.

He swallows it whole, chewing lightly. "I mean- yes." He coughed into his fist awkwardly. "We're pirates."

Quinn purses her lips. "Alright, then it's nice to meet you, Captain." It wasn't like she had other plans.

Ace brightened visibly at the title. He cast a quick look around the room, spotting another stairwell leading down, and leant over it. "Oy, you said this bag of yours was black and white right?"

"Right."

"That it?" Quinn got up to look over his head, not a hard thing to do considering he was surprisingly shorter than her, and followed his finger to spot the opened flap of her shoulder bag on Roddie's desk with part of its contents spilling out among the papers. She hissed at the sight, eyes narrowing.

"That ass- he went through my shit."

"Did he take anything?" Ace glared at the bag as if it was going to jump up and bite her hand when she went to quickly search through.

There didn't seem to be anything missing but her clothes were a crumpled, wrinkly mess and what little money she had in the weird One Piece currency was strewn around the bottoms of the pockets and torn. Everything else was in similar states of disarray but it wasn't as if she had much or anything of particular value on her- Quinn still didn't like people going through her stuff and touching it. Hell, even Ace had the decency to look away but she thought that was more because she was shoving undergarments back inside than anything.

"No, doesn't look like it." Quinn sighed lightly. "Thanks for helping me find it."

He gave her a lazy thumbs up, hand covering the upper half of his face. "No problem."

"...Dude, I don't care if you see my things." Quinn deadpanned at the reaction. "Don't be a prude."

"Oh," Ace dropped the hand almost immediately, "Really? The last time I ended up seeing a woman's wardrobe I got called a pervert and pepper sprayed." He twitched. Luffy had laughed at him while he rolled around on the ground while holding his face. His expression darkened sourly, "It was not fun."

Quinn's mouth fell open. "That seems like a bit of an overreaction. What happened?" She raised a brow, going through Roddie's drawers without a seconds hesitation and rifling through his stuff. Hey, if he was going through hers than she'd go through his no questions asked. "You're not a closet pervert are you?" She asked more to get him riled up than anything.

And rile he did. Hair practically standing on end as he snarled out a no before seeing the quirk of her smile and gave her a dry stare. "Har, har, very funny." He rolled his eyes before explaining, "I ended up getting punted through her window and destroying her dresser. Long story short she thought I was a pervert and pepper sprayed me until I fell back out the hole I made and into a rose bush." The thorns were not great. "Makino said that it was rude to go through women's clothes, specifically. And that she probably thought I was gonna harass or hurt her." He scratched the back of his head. "Don't know how you'd get that idea from clothes though…"

Quinn contemplated facepalming but no, Ace seemed to honestly fail at putting together any connection so instead she settled on patting him on the shoulder and saying, "I don' know man. I don't know. Girls are weird."

"But you are a…" Ace shook his head, "Oh, hey! What's this?" He pointed to a microphone and red button, made out of some weird shells and sticking out of a box.

"Island wide intercom. Roddie made it out of a bunch of shells and wires apparently."

Ace hummed, contemplating pressing it before deciding against letting everyone know where they were and instead rapping his knuckles against the desk excitedly, "Can we go now? We gotta grab a ship and take off before we get found out! I ain't gonna be no Marine and I'm pretty sure you don't want to get executed- so can we go?!"

"Yeah," she smirked as she pulled out a handful of crumpled bills from inside Roddie's drawers, "I think I got every- woah. Shit!" She swore, ducking down. Just in time to not be seen by the blonde stepping into the building.

There was a surprised grunt.

"Ah- you're that guy from earlier aren't you?"

Ace narrowed his eyes at the new arrival but didn't move an inch, instead glaring. "Who the hell are you?"

Quinn swore under her breath, barely above a whisper and pressed herself close to the desk while mouthing 'holy shit' over and over again.

There was the distinct sound of a sword being slid in-and-out of its sheath, as if methodically, and Ace thankfully didn't offer so much as a glance in her direction- looking absolutely nonchalant and like he was supposed to be there; a completely neutral expression on his face.

She had only just caught the blonde man out of the corner of her eye from the large window facing the outside and it had taken her nearly half a second too long to recognize the frightening individual and throw herself down.

"Jones." He yawned into his hand, apparently bored. "Hey, you haven't seen a chick with black hair recently? Looks like she took a swan dive off a cliff?"

Quinn pursed her lips at the description, before giving a dry nod: That's fair.

"Nope." Ace lied, popping his letters.

"Hm… how about this? She ate a Devil Fruit that my crew called dibs on. The Luck Luck Fruit."

Quinn froze, mouthing the title in shock.

"And we'd really, really like it back."

She shook her head. She could think on that later.

(But really… luck? That was her power? That's… so lame.)

"Sorry. Can't help you."

"Urk- that's too bad." Jones sighed and fingered the hilt of his sword, watching as Ace tensed. "You were with her earlier weren't you?"

Ace's jaw clenched slightly while he eyed the odd sword and contraption. Something told him he definitely didn't want to be on the receiving end of that blade in particular. So, rigidly, he strained out a forced, "No. I think you got me mixed up with someone else." It sounded bland to even his own ears.

"Do I? Do I really?" Jones blinked in obvious disbelief. "It's kinda hard to forget the bright orange cowboy hat."

"What orange hat?"

Ace blinked, slapping his hat off and letting it plop down onto the table. Quinn facepalmed.

"...That one." Jones pointed. "That one right there. On the desk. That you just took off."

Ace didn't so much as falter. "I don't know what you're talking about." Slapping the hat into Quinn's hands. If it was possible, she facepalmed harder.

His shoulders shook, "Nuhuuhuhu. Sorry, but I think you're lying."

"About the hat?" Ace sighed and nodded. "Yeah. Sorry. It is mine." He picked it back up, ignoring Quinn's incredulousness. "Neat, isn't it?! My brother gave it to me!" Ace chirped, spinning it on a finger. "It's the coolest! It's got-"

"I know what its got! I can see it!" Jones snapped, hand gripping his sword. "And that's not what I'm talking about and you know it!"

"Do I? Do I really?" Ace returned mockingly.

"You do!" He accused. "Now how're we plannin' on doing this then?"

There was a long pause.

Ace and Quinn shared a glance and she reached a hand up over the edge of the desk to grasp the first thing she could get her hands on.

"Now you could hand the girl over-"

He ducked.

"Bitch-! Was that _food_?!"

Quinn glared. "Yeah. It was." Still in a throwing position. She had thrown- _something_ at him. She wasn't exactly sure in all honesty but she was pretty sure that she didn't want to find out. It was a container of something… weird and goopy. Jones wiped an arm across his cheek and grimaced, muttering disgusted curses under his breath and seemingly less than impressed by the turn of events. "Tell your ass of a Captain to quit being a pig next time and maybe I wouldn't have shit to throw." Quinn snarled.

Apparently fed up Jones growled.

"Nuhu- you assume there's going to be a next time."

"Yeah, I do. You know why?" A rather cruel smirk played itself over her lips and even Ace froze at the dark tone of her voice, a feeling of dread coming over him. Quinn, taking a deep breath, offered him an apologetic smile, watching as his expression morphed into one of horror. "Sorry, Ace…"

He flung his hands up to stop her, "W-W-Wait-?!"

"Shit! What're you-"

She slammed her hand down on the intercom button- a high pitched whine filling the room and subsequently the whole island. The trio in the mail station weren't witness to the groans as people slammed their hands over their ears and jerked up at the loud noise, followed by the colorful swearing of a blue haired man ushering his companions onto a stolen marine vessel, and a man with the silhouette of a mammoth and a bulldog lifting his head and following directions of two people perched on each of his shoulders. No, instead of seeing that, Ace and Jones watched in varying amounts of horror and anger as Quinn felt a wide grin spread over her face and said, as clearly as she could:

"Pirates in the Mail Station! Requesting two person ship be prepared for hostage citizens to flee with at the docks! This is not a drill! I repeat, Pirates in the Mail Station! This is an authorized request, all able bodied Marines to the East Mail and a ship be prepared for long journey- By order of Monkey D. Garp! I repeat, Pirates in the-"

"VARELA WHY WOULD YOU DO TH-?!" Ace began to shout, throwing his hands up to his head, but Quinn just shook her head and snatched him by the wrist.

"Less talk, more run! Up the stairs! Up the stairs-!" Quinn frantically yanked him along. "We gotta go-!"

Jones let out a furious shout, teeth clicking together angrily, and lunged. Quinn yelped at the move, crouching as the blonde brought his sword down to meet them-

Jones was forced to turn mid-attack, just in time for Ace to take the lead at the first step of the stairs, dragging Quinn up after him, and the building to erupt behind them in a flurry of movement and rubble.

"HERE'S GARP-Y!"

Frick.

Of all times for him to show up and block his blow.

Quinn was pretty sure Ace would deny the yelp that managed to make its way out of his throat before he could clamp his hand down over his mouth. He glared at her from the corner of his eye, "What the hell was that?! He's gonna destroy everything!"

"Sorry but I'd prefer dealing with him than what's-his-face-Jones or whatever!" Quinn returned, nearly tripping back down the stairs. "I just didn't realize he'd get here so fast!"

Ace snorted, "Trust me, he is wayy worse than anything you could think of-"

There was a tremor.

"Shit!" Ace looked over his shoulder and seemed to burst forward with renewed speed, "Run! _Run! Run! Ru-!"_

"Oh, what the fu…" Quinn trailed off when she went to look behind them as well, eyes wide. "How is the floor crumbling?!"

It was if the stairs were being eaten at their heels.

Quinn whipped around to look back ahead. Ace looked like he wanted to say 'I told you so' but focused more on climbing stairs. "I-" she swallowed, "I think I'm experiencing a new kind of fear. This is some supernatural shit!"

"Chehahaha-!" Ace couldn't help but laugh at the reaction. "Welcome to my world! This way!"

"Urk-"

Quinn grumbled loosely, running a hand through her hair.

Well… wasn't this a turn of events?

There was a click as the door to the roof opened up. There was also the building beneath them collapsing a few feet but Quinn wasn't exactly focused on that. No, it was a bit easier to focus on the remaining daylight blinding her and jumping to the next roof just in time to leave behind the now entirely collapsed Mail Station.

"If it isn't a pirates life for me?" She mumbled, ignoring the weird look that Ace gave her.

It was certainly an idea to play with.

-0-

Jones yelped.

"Damn it, what the hell man?!"

He yelped again.

"Maybe if someone wasn't an idiot for not telling us that Monkey D. Garp was going to be on this island you wouldn't be injured right now-"

"Look, I said I was sorry already Fischer." Roddie sighed, rubbing a fist against his chest. "They don't exactly hand me a slip that tells me every little detail I need to know-"

"Excuses! We're the Creep Pirates!" Fischer hissed. There was another yelp and Jones swallowed a whimper. "We're known for infiltration and stealing information from anybody and everybody! We damn well better have known- anything else but that is a failure!"

Roddie and Jones flinched away from the short, hunchbacked man's glower.

Fischer, the Creep Pirates Doctor, who had taken the place of the island's Doctor, was a dark, gremlin of a man with haunting, droopy eyes that looked like something from nightmares. He was patching up the bruised and beaten Jones they had managed to snatch back onto their ship mid-fight with Vice Admiral Monkey D. Garp- a fight that had not been in his favor. Now, sporting a plethora of injuries Jones sat shirtless on Fischer's table and was sadistically being poked and prodded at.

"And you didn't even get the Devil Fruit! That was the only reason we stayed this long on this damned island and you know it!" Fischer growled, stabbing him in the side harshly- there was an especially anguished shout and Roddie cringed. "That's cracked… This whole excursion was a massive failure and we missed out on a major payday!"

"Fischer… stop." Roddie growled finally, turning to the patient. "Jones, report."

"You heard the announcement…" The blonde began with a slightly impressed grin. "I don't know what you're talkin' about when you complained about her being a pathetic weakling: She's definitely got balls for pulling a stunt like that."

Roddie pulled a face, "I never said she wasn't smart. Though I use that term loosely in this case."

"Really? After sicing Garp on my ass she also called for an escape ship for her and Mister Cowboy, Ace, we got anything on him?"

"Plenty. He's… _his_ kid." Roddie hummed. "But that's not important. I expected him to make a mess eventually, as all D's do."

Jones choked. "No way! You found out about that from…?"

"When we infiltrated Aokiji." Roddie nodded. "That icy bastards got more than enough secrets to keep us full for years. Continue."

A bit put out at having to drop that interesting tidbit Jones slumped and grumbled, "Well, I can't measure up to Garp, I'm lucky he couldn't fight seriously 'cause of those two hanging off his shoulders- the ones we tied up earlier, you remember? But I managed to move the fight by the docks and see that pair jump onto their waiting ship and take off. I would've gone after them too but then ya'll showed up and-" He gestured around them, wincing at the pain it brought. "Here we are!"

"Here we are…" Roddie repeated gently and groaned. "Great."

The Doctor clicked his teeth together. "You better have another cash cow. You owe me for putting up with those idiotic villagers this past year."

He sagged. "Yeah, I'll throw something together. We'll have to extort something and see if we can get a little extra on the side."

Jones huffed, "You're the one who refuses to pillage even though we're Pirates."

"We're Pirates." He deadpanned. "That doesn't mean we don't have morals. Well…"

He glanced at the frightening Doctor sadistically prodding Jones injuries way longer than was necessary.

"Some of us."

Jones let out a high pitched whine from the back of his throat. "Fischer, ow! Don't make me spit on you!"

"Try it and I'll cut you."

Roddie sweatdropped.

"Oh, and that little Varrie-girl skipped out on her medical bills, I will be expecting compensation."

"Of course you are."

"Woman didn't even need much work. All she did was have a bruise on her spine, and I can barely call it that, and she was such a whiner- complaining about neck pain." Fischer scoffed. "Only use she had was screwing up our plans…" He gave Roddie an annoyed look.

Who raised his hands up defensively, "Not my fault!"

There was a long sigh from him and Roddie buried his face in the crux of his thumb, glaring up at the ceiling. "Well, who knows what's in store for us from here on out- at least we can go back to piracy now that everyone's back on their feet."

Jones knocked a hand against his head, "Finally- after the mess that was Mariejois I thought we'd never get back out there!"

"And the Devil Fruit?"

"Leave it. I'm not opening that particular box of horrors today-" Roddie waved him off. "For now, the Creep Pirates are back in action. Our destination: The Grand Line!"

"…"

"Jonesy~" Roddie suddenly whipped around, tears pricking at his eyes, stomping on the ground like a petulant child, "My plans got ruined!"

"Please, don't start whining-"

 _"But Jonesy!"_


	4. Interlude I

It was when she was struggling to her feet, brow furrowed in concentration, and trying her hardest to balance next to Ace a few hours away from Saigen's shore that she finally said, "Is it a bad time to point out that this is my first time being on a ship?" It was intensely harder than she'd thought it'd be to stand up straight. The ripple of waves beneath her feet were not helping her balance either. Ace gave her a surprised blink, but upon seeing her failure to stand seemed to nod his head in understanding, sweat dropping.

"Chehe, really? I couldn't tell."

"Your sarcasm is much appreciated." Quinn deadpanned and, as best she can, wobbles past him to take a seat. Ah, there. Nice and safe on the floor in crisscross applesauce. "No, really, I love it. It's an immense help."

Ace waves her off. "Don't worry about it Varela. I'll show you how to use- and be on- a ship properly!" He offered.

"Thank you. Good to have at least one of us knowing what they're doing…" She trails off, taking a moment to gaze in the direction of Saigen. The departure from Saigen wasn't a sad affair, it could only be described as quick. Quinn and Ace, both in a hurry to not be noticed by Garp and keep their pursuers off their tails, had jumped into the small two-person Marine ship that Quinn had requested in a stroke of genius and taken off. Not even taking the chance to wave goodbye to the islands inhabitants before they were being swept out to sea and out of range, left to stare at the dot on the horizon.

Not so much a dot anymore, Quinn let out a toneless hum, it wasn't even visible anymore.

"It's a good thing you called for this ship. Varela." Ace scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Mine got destroyed in a storm and I barely made it to the island." It was a bit disconcerting hearing this from the guy who just offered to teach her how to operate a ship. But Quinn didn't let it get to her, instead ignoring that little tidbit and instead focusing on something a bit more pressing to her personally.

She narrowed her eyes at him thinly, thoughts stuttering to a halt in confusion.

"...Why do you call me that?"

When she poses the question its after a few awkward moments of silence and her trying to reorganize her bag.

"Call you what?"

And Ace doesn't get it. Not that she entirely expected him to. She chewed on her bottom lip in thought, thumb pressing against it. "That's weird." Actually, now that she thought about it he wasn't the only one. "Dahlia and Maple did that too. Well, when they weren't spouting nicknames like Varley."

Ace repeated the question, raising a hand slightly. "Call you what?"

"Varela, of course?" She said it as if it was a question, brow raising as his furrowed.

"Wait- that's… not your name?!" He exclaimed, horrified.

"No, it is."

Oh.

"Oh," he deflated in relief, "then what's the problem?"

"It's my surname though." She explained. "It's just kind of… odd."

"Ah, wait- you introduced yourself as Quinn Varela, right?" He crossed his arms, tilting his head. At her nod he frowned, before his eyes lit up in understanding and he gave her a pitying look, "You can't introduce yourself properly."

"No. That's not it." Quinn denied dryly.

"You gotta introduce yourself surname, given name." Ace explained ignoring her denial. "Otherwise you're doing it wrong and people will get mixed up. Here, you try it out!"

"I'm Quinn Varela."

He made an X with his fingers, making a buzzer noise.

"Bouu! That's not right."

 _"Quinn Varela."_

"Bou, you're bad at this!"

Quinn wanted to facepalm, "No, Ace, it's a cultural difference. I'm not changing the way I introduce myself. Just call me Quinn from here on out, please."

"Quinn." He played with the name, unsurely. It was shorter and simpler than Varela at least, easier to say. He nodded and went to fiddle with his compass, they were headed North at the moment, hopefully far away from Saigen. "Ahuh- your cultures _weird._ "

"And here I was thinking you were polite." Quinn deadpanned. "And what're you doing?"

"Lookin' at this. See?" Ace waved a hand for her to come forward.

She rolled over to look over his shoulder, instead of struggling to stand up again, blowing her hair out of her face. He had an overall quite blank looking map in his lap now and was holding a scraped and old compass in his hand. "I'm not much of a navigator, never been good at it, but…" He pointed to an empty space near the middle of the map. "I think we're right here?" He didn't sound too sure, Quinn frowned.

"That's quite a bit of ways away from Saigen… I don't think we've gone that far yet."

Ace shrugged, "'M guessing, mostly." He scratched his head. "And we're heading over…" he pointed. "Here. Yeah. I heard there was an island here at least."

" _Heard?_ "

"Overheard some guys talking about there being treasure there." It brought a wide grin to his face. "We're gonna get it!"

"If it's there."

Ace conceded unhappily, ".. _.if_ its there."

Quinn eyed the map. It didn't have much on it, but there was a large landmass at the bottom of the page and a few smaller outlines drawn near it- nothing that stood out though, and there was a lack of labels. "Which way did you come from?" She asked. It'd probably be smart to get an idea of the world around her.

"Hm? Oh, here." He pointed to the edge of the larger landmass, near the corner of the page. "From Mt. Colubo!"

"And how long did it take you to get to Saigen?"

"About… five days?" He tilted his head, "I got stuck in a storm though so it probably took longer than it should've. My ship got wrecked in it." Ace grumbles the last part under his breath. That boat had taken a lot of time to put together- especially since Luffy, the little jerk, kept sneaking on board and eating all his supplies the days before, and he had even taken the time to paint it.

Quinn blinked slowly. "But that's nearly double the distance and-" She looked back over her shoulder at what she had gotten the Marines to prepare. "I don't think we have enough food to last that long."

And she was pretty sure that Ace's appetite wasn't exaggerated, especially given how easily he devoured the basket of food he had on him before. She shuddered, covering her mouth. "You sure you wanna go for a straight shot? We could probably stop at somewhere closer and restock before-"

Ace's eyes practically lit up in barely held excitement. "I'm sure!" He turned back to the smile at the map. "I don't know what kinda treasure it is but I bet it's a lot! Imagin' the ship we could buy with that kind of money?"

She chewed on her lip, looking back at their food. It wasn't a lot. Maybe a few days if they were lucky, which, apparently she was so… Okay. "I- it's your call, Ace. Let's just be careful with our food then."

He gave her a thumbs up.

Ah- this didn't feel like it was going to end well.

…

…

Quinn picked her way over the length of the boat carefully, not wanting to take a dive by accident or stumble, ignoring the gentle and hollow thump of her shoes on the base of the ship. It took a bit of effort to balance and step over Ace's splayed form, the ravenette more quiet than she ever would've expected. Even if he was by no means a silent sleeper. He didn't snore, no, not at all. But he could never in a million years be described as quiet. His breaths were deep and scratchy and every now and then he'd grumble out something in his sleep.

That wasn't even counting the fact that he tossed and turned and his hands would grab out searchingly, like he was used to having something with him. It made it harder to get around him.

The day had given way to night faster than either of them had expected and soon it was hard to see more than a few feet in front her, clouds taking over the sky and only letting the barest sliver of moon glow through.

Something latched onto her ankle and nearly sent her face first into the side of the ship.

Quinn glared ahead, not glancing down. "You're awake, aren't you?"

There was startling silence for a just a moment before Ace let out a weary groan caught somewhere between a laugh and being honestly annoyed, "You know what time it is? Why're you moving around?"

"No, I don't have a watch. And," she twisted around on one foot to scowl at him, hopping awkwardly, "Can't sleep. Can you let go?" He grumbles under his breath for a minute but does so.

Damn, she crouches down next to him to rub her ankle, he had a killer grip.

"Why not?" Ace laid back down, blearily rubbing his eyes.

"Hm?" Quinn stopped massaging her ankle long enough to tilt her head curiously at the question, he gave her a dry, tired look at the lack of answer. "Oh." The boat jostled her out of her thoughts. "Not used to being on a ship I guess."

Lo and behold her first time ever on a ship, not even a quality one, and it wasn't going super well. How surprising was that? Adding on that it was going to be for an extended period of time with a someone who she basically stalked without meaning to, yeah that was a…

Quinn coughed.

More than a little weird.

And that was probably the best way to put the feeling into words. 'Cause cutting straight to the point it was not the most comfortable of situations.

"You'll get used to it." Ace assured, or as best as he could considering he proceeded to nod back off without so much as another twitch. Quinn snorted unladylike at him, chuckling softly at the action. Huh. She wished she was him, Quinn thought jealousy. It would have been wonderful to lay back and do nothing but _sleep_ …

She shook her head, shuffling over to sit with her back against the side of the ship- it would probably do well to find a distraction.

Except there was literally nothing to do.

Nothing.

A lot of her chagrin was coming from the fact that Ace had basically nothing on himself besides the clothes on his back and what was in his bag, and Quinn was far, far worse off. Only having a bare minimum of necessities(if that) and a wad of crumpled up cash in a currency she didn't understand at all, not even a deck of cards to mess around with. So she was out of luck.

Until that thought caused her to freeze.

Quinn raised a hand up to her face, only getting out the vague outline of her palms and fingers.

She stared.

"How…" she spoke gently so as to not wake up Ace, "How do you work?"

Jones said that it was the Luck Luck Fruit so that made her a… Lucky Human then?

...That's _so lame._

"Power up!" She whisper-shouted.

Nope.

"I command thee…"

Na-da.

"Lucky prism power! Make-up!"

"Mhph-?"

No.

"It's morphin' time!"

 _"Snk_ \- che…"

Nothing.

"Let's see…" She hummed. A bit of a farfetched one- "Lucky-bots, Roll out!"

Not a thing-

"Chehaha!" Quinn jumped, gasping as Ace sat up suddenly and chortled. He lifted himself up onto his elbows and coughed into his fist. "What're you doing?" He asked.

Instead of answering right away, she instead ducked her head, shoulders hugging her neck, and asked politely, "Did I wake you again?"

He waved her off. "Yeah but no worries. Not anymore!" His eyes practically gleamed and he continued to look at her imploringly, grin slowly stretching wider and wider on his face. "What were you doing?"

"Just-" She bit her tongue. "Just trying to figure out how to use my Devil Fruit powers."

"I got that much," Ace grinned even sharper now. "But _what_ were you doing?"

She hung her head.

"...Being a massive dork."

The resulting cackle had her glaring at Ace venomously. "Oh, shut up! I don't know how these things are supposed to work. Especially with this sort of power." She hissed.

It only served to make his snickers simmer.

Taking way longer than it should've for him to come down from his high, he finally said, "I don't think catchphrases are going to help you figure it out."

"Look. I'm tired." She groaned.

"Chehe. Okay, okay," Ace raised his hands up in sign for peace, "Your powers luck right? That's what that guy said?"

"...Yes."

"Then does that mean you're just naturally lucky now? Or can you control it?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." She paused though, thinking it over. "But… I think it's definitely not the former. I'm not feeling any luckier than normal, in fact I think I've had some of the worst luck I've e _ver_ had these past few weeks. Which is saying something." Quinn glared up at the moon.

"Then it's simple!" Ace chirped and Quinn had to lean back because he was suddenly all up in her face, blinding grin set. "You just need to figure out how to control it!"

She pursed her lips.

And gave him a dead look. "...Any ideas there, Captain Obvious?"

"Well, Luck tells us absolutely jackshit, so… no." He says it rather cheerfully and Quinn has to facepalm. She has to.

She doesn't.

It takes an extreme amount of willpower.

Her eye twitches almost imperceptibly but Ace still catches it and has to hide his amusement.

" _Well,_ it's a good thing I just had something come to me then."

He blinks when she holds up a coin.

It wasn't hard to come up with. And it hit her abruptly, like a slap to the face.

"You up for a good ol' game of heads or tails?"

…

…

The game was all in all quite simple. Quinn decided the best way to go about experimenting with what was supposedly her power was to call on her experiences with sixth grade science and the Scientific Method. As in, guess what's gonna happen, why, and do trials.

Her and Ace's Assumption?

She'd always get it right. No matter what. Or, at least, would have way more wins than him.

Why?

'Cause she was a dumbass who ate a Devil Fruit and now has such an intangible and ungrounded power like _luck._

But that wasn't important at the moment.

To figure out how to use her powers they set up multiple, simple trials. Each trial consisting of twelve coin flips, to leave room for error and inconsistencies, and after each trial she would try something different to figure out how her power worked. Did it work naturally? Did she have to be the one to flip the coin? Did she have to be the one to guess? What if Ace guessed?

They continued on, with her marking down who got what right in her head and hopefully finding that her fruit worked for one of the attempts.

"Heads."

 _Tails._

"Tails."

 _Tails._

"Tails."

 _Heads._

Newsflash, it didn't.

At all.

Every trial done and away with and they were each 50/50 on pretty much every single one of them. And on the ones where they were somewhere around 60/40 or 70/30 were all in Ace's favor at that! Quinn growled at the coin, eyes straining to see their failure in the dark. "Well that told us nothing."

Ace steals the coin and begins playing with it, flipping it himself and slapping it onto his wrist to see if he got it right. "Maybe it was a fake?" He suggested, grumbling as he got it wrong.

Quinn immediately wrinkled her nose and shakes her head. "No… Definitely not a fake." To be put through as much shit as she had been by Roddie it had to be real. There was also the fact that the absolutely rank taste it'd left was still in her mouth assaulting her taste buds even after all the time that had passed… yeah. It had to be real.

(Admittedly she hadn't actually tried swimming yet. Not wanting to experience drowning anytime soon.)

Ace hums, flipping the coin. "Then you just suck at this, huh?"

She shoves him, using her shoulder to bump into his. "Yeah," she rolled her eyes, "I can gather that much." She huffs, crossing her arms, dragging her thumb against her teeth thoughtfully. "But… I definitely used it at least once before. Remember when that gold stuff went up into the air? It kinda looked like smoke?"

"Uh-"

Ace falters in his catch. Staring at his shoulder.

"You mean this?"

"Huh?"

There. On Ace's shoulder where she had bumped him was a gold mark. He was shirtless so it wasn't that hard to spot the golden splotch of color standing out amongst his skin and freckles. Quinn's own gaze dropped to her own shoulder- oh. Her jacket had fallen down slightly.

"Is… Is that it?" She murmured. "Skin on skin contact?" Before eyeing the mark harshly and hurriedly gave him the coin, "Let's try again. I want to see what changed!"

This time Quinn expected herself to get the better score but no. Once again she was wrong.

 _Ace steamrolled her._

"Heads."

 _Tails._

"Heads."

 _Tails._

"Tails."

 _Heads._

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

"Chehehehe! You suck at this, Quinn!" Ace cackled. "Are you even trying?"

She ignores him.

"Well… that's unexpected." Quinn blinks at the mark. It faded, falling away into the same wispy smoke that she had seen before. Completely disappearing. "I think I… gave you luck."

They stared at each other.

And jumped up.

"NO WAY!" They shouted in unison.

Or, in Quinn's case, whisper-shouted.

"You gave me luck!"

"I… gave you luck?!" Quinn repeated. She didn't know whether to be horrified or excited so she settled somewhere uncomfortably in the middle of the two and pressed her hands together, covering her mouth. "That's so…"

Kinda lame but.

She'd figured it out!

"Cool!" Thankfully Ace filled in for her chipperly, keeping the mood positive. "It took my brother years to figure out how to use his Devil Fruit properly, it always ended in disaster, but you've gotten the hang of it way faster."

"I wouldn't say that…" More like she used it. Once. And it went well. Once. "Ah- your… brother?" She tilted her head, acting curious. "What fruit does he have?"

She didn't want to open that can of worms too far, but from the look on Ace's face he seemed more than ready to pop it open and spill it out all over the table. She almost immediately regretted the question the moment hr started talking. Almost completely forgetting that they had been talking about Devil Fruits in the first place. "My brother? His name's Luffy, he ate the Gum Gum Fruit and became a rubber man-!"

All things she knew. Not that he knew she knew.

Quinn held back a sigh but settled into reluctantly listen.

"-and he took this huge bite of watermelon and started spitting seeds out of his mouth like a gun at these farmers who got super pissed and started chasing after him-"

It was going to be a long night.

…

…

It was on the fourth day that they ran out of food and Ace's voice started to die after practically singing stories about his brother, Quinn knew that he was nowhere near out of material but she liked to hope, so the days were looking bleak. Especially considering that Ace was seemingly doing much worse than she was. He didn't complain, no. But he was definitely more irritable and his stomach was way louder than his mouth ever could be. She winced at a particularly loud gurgle.

He was splayed out on deck like a starfish, glaring up at the sun through the limited shade his hat provided.

Another thing- Quinn wrinkled her nose- Ace burned. Like real bad too, his arms peeled and he looked like a bright red lobster, sweat dripping down his face. Her own skin, darker than his by quite a bit, had always tanned so she'd never really had a sunburn experience. Thankfully. Still didn't mean that the pale scratches where he had rubbed the skin off were any less gross than they were.

She leaned over him. "Hey, Ace."

"...Whaaat?" He groaned, breathing hard.

"I think that maybe, just maybe, we should stop to restock for supplies next time before going to find some treasure island." Quinn smirked. "Just maybe."

Ace cast her a mutinous glare.

"Shuddup, Quinn." He slapped her away weakly.

Quinn let his hand hang on her face, not even blinking. "I found a pen. Wanna play tic-tac-toe?"

It was a sad state of affairs when Ace let her use his arm as paper to carefully trace out grids for them to play with- and the only complaint or question he asked was, "Why don't we use your body?" To which she simply glanced down to her sleeve covered arms and legs and the fact that the only part of her skin being even somewhat revealed was her collar and a slip of her stomach and gave him a stubborn but deadpan, "I'm shy." And a look to drop it.

Ace didn't know what it was. Maybe it was the fact that Quinn constantly sat in ways that Ace knew would drive Nobles crazy and make certain people blush, or the double layer of tank tops and the obvious bra straps showing without a care, or the shorts, or, most likely, the irritated look on her face when he asked the question, but he was pretty sure she wasn't shy.

"Do you wanna be X's or O's?"

"Always X's!"

"...That was a little fast of an answer." Quinn pointed out with no small amount of amusement as he took the pen from her and marked down his first spot, the center. "Any particular reason?

"When pirates mark their treasure on a map they always do it with an X, that means that's where the treasure is. Everybody knows that!" Ace explained. "Apparently the Marines, I heard this from Jiji surprisingly, used to also distribute fake maps with an X on it to get pirates to go to certain locations so they could catch them easily. But all those maps look really new so the older stories and maps are usually real. Or not. If there's an X that means there's treasure!"

Quinn nodded at the explanation, glancing down at the X written on his arm, and couldn't help but ask, "You really think you're a treasure?"

"Huh?"

It takes a minute for Ace to put two-and-two together but when he does Quinn has won the first round and he blushes so furiously and looks so taken aback that Quinn can't help but start laughing until he also chuckles, "I'm just kidding! I'm just kidding!" She's already drawing out another grid on his arm, "Kehehe. With a look like that on your face it almost makes me think you've never heard a joke before. Don't tell me you're that stuffy!" She raises both her eyebrows at him and watches as he grumbles and steals the pen away from her before she can get the first turn in.

"It was a dumb joke… and I'm not stuffy." He muttered. "Oh, hey, I won!" He stuck his tongue out at her.

"Oh, please." Quinn rolled her eyes, smirking as she brushed a gold mark over her own skin, "Now, let's play for real this time."

Ace gawked, "Oy, that's cheating!" He exclaimed.

"What- no, its not. I just have a bit of luck on my side." She gestured to the fact she'd rather literally marked it on her side. "And its more fun this way! For me, specifically."

He narrowed his eyes at her, sour.

"Besides, it'll help me get used to using my power." She reasoned.

Ace cut her off, "And also win."

"An added plus but sacrifices do need to be made."

Though tic-tac-toe was not a game she'd say relied on luck it was still one that she could try her powers out on. Monitoring when the mark disappeared, seemingly at every time Ace got distracted.

Hell, she had used it on him once and it'd looked like he was about to nod off at one point!

The games of tic-tac-toe commenced and then a new one, and another, and another, until Ace was drawn up to his sleeves and he was struggling to write on the ones covering his legs and abdomen. Quinn had to pull back a few times and hold back a laugh, struggling to keep it in at the comical sight. "Congratulations, Ace, you won. But only a quarter of the time." He glares at her, annoyed. "Wanna do one more? I think there's room on your neck still."

"No luck?"

"No luck." At the confirmation he agreed to do one more and Quinn had to describe it for him and mark it out herself since he couldn't see it in any way. "Oh, will you look at that? I still won."

Ace cursed, ears turning red, and he rolled away from her. "It's just cause I'd get distracted and forget where you put it last, damn it. I would've won otherwise!"

"...Are you pouting?" Quinn couldn't help but ask.

"No!"

He was pouting.

Quinn snickered, "Okay, tic-tac. Here, have this for your troubles." She leaned over, dangling a granola bar in front of his face and watching him light up blindingly. Jesus, even without a devil fruit he lit up like fire.

"You-" he snatched it up, with his mouth Quinn should add, and tore off the wrapper ravenously. Damn, he almost got a finger-! Quinn hissed. "Where did you get this?!"

"I found it in a side pocket in my bag."

"Aren't you hungry?" Ace asked, mouth full.

Quinn stared, disgusted. "Not anymore."

She shook her head, dusting herself off in case of any crumbs and stood up, the ship swayed a bit more beneath her and Quinn huffed at her inability to balance. "Oy, Quinn?" Ace asked suddenly, still chewing his food. He was looking up. "Is it just me or is that a really weird looking bird?"

She had to cover her eyes from the sun, sweat sliding down the side of her face, but- "No, it's not just you." She narrowed her eyes. All she could really pick out was the birds silhouette but even that was striking, to say the least.

It's neck was extended out and ribbed, an elongated beak that looked too sharp to be normal, and most notably it's wingspan was something else. Even from this distance Quinn could could tell that the bird was just humongous. Ace crunched down on the granola bar, gaze blank for a few seconds before he blinked boredly and rubbed a fist over his eyes, "Uh- Quinn?"

"Yes, Ace."

"Did it just drop something?"

"Yes. Yes it did."

Another second passed.

"Huh."

A shadow was quickly growing bigger and bigger and bigger above them. Ace and Quinn shared a blank glance, looked back up, then back at eachother and- "Oh shit! It's coming right at us!"

Okay, so they were a bit slow on the uptake.

It hit with a crash, sending up waves and water. Ace and her both jumped to the other side of the boat and slammed down with all their weight- just in time too, barely lifting the boat out of the way. And when Quinn said they were cutting it close they _really were cutting it close:_ the wood was slightly frayed and splintered from where whatever-it-was clipped the edge of the ship.

"What was that?!" Quinn hissed, crawling to the side of the boat. The water was completely unsettled and they were being blown a few feet away from the spot of impact, the waves making standing up in the ship even harder than it normally was.

Not that that affected Ace. He had one hand on the back of his hat and the other braced only slightly against the mast, brows furrowed. "Hey, was that screaming on the way down?"

Quinn paused.

It took her a minute to process what he said before Quinn managed to recall a gruff scream, even though she'd only managed to catch it for half a second.

Quinn blinked in shock at the pair of boots and hat that was suddenly stuffed into her arms, not even noticing when he had shoved them into her hands so he could jump into the water.

She shook her head. Watching the shadows under the surface as they seemed to collide and slowly began rising to the surface. The back of Ace's head was the first thing she noticed, he was carrying something in his arms.

"Over here, Ace!" She called. "Damn, that was fast..."

He hefted the… thing… into the ship.

It... was _weird._

"Devil Fruit brother." He offered in way of explanation.

"Right, well, I'll know who to turn to then. Should I fall in the water." She then frowned and Ace followed her gaze back over to the thing. "But… _what_ … is that?"

"It's a… Treasure Bush?" Ace tilted his head, wringing out his shirt.

"I know some people treasure their bush but usually that one involves burning. This is a bit too-" Quinn grimaced. "Literal. And far less stimulating for the senses." Well, other than the nose. It reeked something awful and it'd probably take her awhile before she could push herself to the point where she could ignore the smell.

Ace didn't even seem slightly bothered. Smirking at her, bemusedly. "You have weird euphemisms."

At that there was a loud groan followed by deep, hoarse breaths. Quinn and Ace jumped as the treasure chest shook and shuddered and a pair of dirt crusted Hobbit-like feet popped out of the dark confines opposite to the green bush-end. "What the hell?! It _is_ a person!" Ace exclaimed, somewhat disturbed and no less shocked as the box-man managed to take in a choked breath. "I was right when I thought I heard screaming!"

Quinn nodded along dumbly.

"Geh-gurk-hrrk!"

There came a fountain spray of water, straight up into the air.

"Ragh!"

That was…

...certainly weird.

"Phank Yous! I tho-" he slurred, water dripping out from the corners of his mouth. "I thought I was gonna die!"

"Lucky you fell near us."

" _Re_ al lucky." Ace agrees, with a glance at Quinn.

"What? I didn't do this."

She paused. Staring at her hands.

"At least, I don't think I did."

"D-Did what?" The box-man coughs and struggles to his feet. It's quite the sight. Quinn sweat drops. "I got here of my own accord-!" He exclaims. It doesn't take a genius to figure out he's lying.

"Really?" Both Ace's eyebrows shot up, amused and unimpressed. "Then what was with the bird?"

"A-Ah- you got me! It was a lie-" Wow. Who would've guessed? "-I-I was just carried here by one of the animals. I must've really pissed this one off if it carried me this far from the island."

"Island?" Ace perked up. "Animals? You mean that you're from that Treasure Island I heard about?!"

He froze at that. Suddenly stiff and mechanical as he looked at Ace, "How... How do you know about that?" He asked. And Quinn glanced between the two at the sudden shift in attitude.

"I overheard some guys mentioning that there was a treasure around here. Apparently people have been searching for it for years and years or something." Ace all but chirped. "Me an' Quinn are looking for it too!"

The box man's face fell, shrouded by his chia pet-like hair.

What was his name again? Quinn pursed her lips, eyeing the guy critically as Ace babbled on about why they were heading to the island, trying to shuffle through all the names she knew relating to this story. He's familiar in a sort of bothersome way and the name's on the tip of her tongue.

"I- I see. You're... treasure hunters then?"

"Nope! Pirates."

"Hm. I see, I see. That's good." Quinn frowned at him, it shouldn't sound like it was good to him. They just admitted to being pirates. "Then I guess you can forgive me for this."

"For what?"

If Ace noticed his creeping hand Quinn didn't let him get the chance to say anything before she was grasping the back of his shirt to tug him out of the way, calling out, "Gun!"

It was followed by her ear drums being assaulted by the sound of a shot. Quinn ignored the fact that she'd thrown Ace to the floor of the ship, eyeing the way that his hat had been flipped up to completely cover his face and was now sporting a sizable chunk missing from its brim, and grabbed the overgrown chia-pet by his hair with a hiss.

"Get off me! Get off me!" He howled, practically frothing at the mouth. "That's my treasure, you hear?! MINE! You can't have it!" He continued to holler.

Quinn wrangled the gun out of his hand, dropping him, and towered over the hobbit. "You asshole! We fished you out of the water and you pull a gun?!" Speaking of which, she glared down at the offending object, grimace falling away.

She has no idea what kind of gun she's holding. It's a pistol but that's pretty much all she can say.

...It's old?

"You know I'm kinda disappointed." And strangely offended.

What kind of asshole do you have to be to pull a gun from the 1600's on someone?

Ace furrowed his brow and glared at the sunlight peeking through the brim of his hat. The brim that was now… blown wide open. The material looking like it'd imploded on itself.

A scowl makes its way onto his face.

"What was that for, asshole?" Ace snaps, sitting up and letting his hat plop down into his lap. It looks completely lifeless, the material limp and hanging uselessly. And its state only serves to piss him off more.

He's vaguely aware that Quinn's holding onto the pistol like she's never seen one in her entire life and instead mutters a quick, but sincere, "Thanks," to her. He didn't need the help. He saw the gun before he'd even touched it and he'd dealt with far worse than some box gremlin with a trigger finger. It's the thought that counts though.

 _"You...!_ " The man grimaces before-

"I'm sorry okay! But this is my treasure, you got that?! And I won't let no Rookies steal what I've been protecting for seventeen years now!" He shouts defiantly, though there's sweat dripping down his face. "I'll die before I'll let some snot-nosed brats take it from me!"

Ace's eyebrows twitched.

"Is that so?"

Quinn pursed her lips. With his hat like that she couldn't tell exactly what he'd do- if it was anywhere near as important to him as the infamous Straw Hat was to the Protagonist then box-man was as good as dead. Though she somehow doubted that was the case.

"Well then..."

She's still not expecting the grin to take over his face.

"I guess we'll just have to get you back to your island so you can protect it properly!"

Nope. That was not what she was expecting. At all.

".. _.Hah?_ "

"You said it was your treasure right? And that you've been protecting it for seventeen years now? That's a long time. I bet you're insanely worried about it right now!" Ace chirped.

"I- I- y-yes?!" He looks about ready to cry. "Do you... mean it?! You'll take me back and you won't even think about touching my treasure?"

Ace confirmed, "You bet."

Oh damn. He really was crying now. They watched as he fell to his knees, seemingly overcome by gratitude. "I- Thank you so much! I can't believe it! Even after I shot at you and threatened you- thank you so much!

"Yeah, I can't believe it either." Quinn frowned at Ace, brow raised.

Ace returned the stare with a nod of his head towards the box-man, "You heard the man, he'd die before giving up his treasure. I'm not about to just kill him." He spun his hat in his hands, staring down at it. "Besides, seventeen years? It must be something really important to him if it's worth his life like that."

She opened and closed her mouth, not finding the correct words before settling somewhat on, "You are too kind-hearted."

Ace looked _very_ taken aback by that statement.

Quinn snorted. "I've got a few sewing supplies, I think. I can fix your hat."

That seemed to pull his mind away from the comment. Face lighting up like the sun, "What- really?"

"Yes. Really."

They were interrupted by sniffling and box-man hopping to his feet, rubbing away tears. "Thank you so much. You are much too kind, just like your crewmate said. I- I have to apologize for my earlier behavior. You saved me and I gotta thank you for that."

"No worries, my hat can be fixed!" He waved him off. "I'm Portgas D. Ace. Nice to meet you!"

"Gaimon."

Quinn nearly snapped her fingers. That's what it was! It was on the tip of her tongue this whole time. She realizes that their expected her to introduce herself when they turn to stare at her. "Oh, uhhh, Quinn... Quinn Varela?"

"Chehehe." Ace sniggered, sliding over to Gaimon and stage whispering, "She can't introduce herself properly. But don't point it out- she gets embarrassed."

Gaimon nodded in understanding. The pair shooting her pitying looks.

"...Do you want me to fix your hat or destroy it?"

"I didn't say anything!"

-0-

Quinn could feel her nose begin to itch and blinked wildly, eyes reddening and looking decidedly pained. Ace took one look at her face and didn't know if he should be worried or dying of laughter in her expense. Given that she was struggling to hide a sneeze behind her arm, sounding like a dying bird, he'd go with the latter.

Now. It should be noted that Quinn was usually pretty cool when it came to animals and the like. But coupled with the fact that the pollen was practically raining down from the trees and every breath she took she could feel her throat and nose clog a bit more… well, she could _not_ deal with it today.

"Chehahaha!"

"Shut the hell up Ace!" Quinn growled under her breath, pulling the strings on her jackets hood to try and protect herself. "The air is like poison here."

"What're you talking about?!" He cackled in disbelief.

"Allergies."

That only served to make him laugh harder.

Quinn pouted. Going to kick him in the shin, efforts dashed as he hopped out of range of her feet with ease. "Hope you get allergies… see how you like it…" She sneezed loudly as she caught an unfortunate whiff of air. "Never been in a place as bad as this. All the pollen, fur, and animals just make it worse." Gosh, and her eyes burned like they were on fire.

"You're allergic to _nature."_

"Shuddup."

"Che-!"

They'd managed to find their way to the so-called "treasure island" without much trouble. If "not much trouble" was Ace hovering over her shoulder and being a general pain in the ass as she attempted to start sewing his hat back together piece by piece while Gaimon cried tears of joy in the corner, pointing them in whatever direction he felt was correct.

Speaking of which, there came a sniff.

"E-Excuse me." They looked at Gaimon. "I can't thank you two enough!" He wiped his arm over his face. Ugh, he'd better not start crying. Quinn and Ace shared a look that spoke volumes of their uncomfortableness. "To think that'd you go out of your way to help me- it's incredible! You're amazing. I've never met a group of fellow pirates that would act so kindly to me and expect nothing in return. I'm so sorry that I was such a-"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that." Ace piped up, cutting him short in his apology, "We're starving! Got any food?"

"Yes, please. Food. Of any kind."

"F-Food?" He stuttered. "Y-Yes, I can show you where to pick up food but-" He gave them a suspicious look. "Don't touch any of the animals."

Quinn sniffed. "Wasn't plannin' on it." As if on cue, she sneezed. Ace snickered at her.

"So long as we get something to eat- it's been days! I could eat anything!"

Gaimon seemed a bit reluctant but he wiped his face with his palm and nodded. "Alright then. Getting you some food shouldn't be too much trouble, especially after you went out of your way to help me! It's the least I can do."

 _Oh thank god._

Quinn was breathing out a sigh of relief. The thought of food of any kind was enough to have her drooling and her stomach growling even worse than it already was. Of course that was nothing compared to Ace. He was practically salivating waterfalls as he hopped after Gaimon, stomach sounding like a goddamn whale even from where she was standing.

"So where are we headed?"

Looking around the island, it didn't seem nearly as big as it had from the shoreline, in fact, if she squinted, Quinn would bet she could see to the other side of the island through all the trees that surrounded them. It was much smaller than expected. It didn't look inhabited either, no sign of Gaimon having a hut or anything. A real bush man then, huh?

"I've got just the watering hole. It's got anything you could want from there!"

"Oh, any fish?"

Gaimon practically sprang five-feet into the air as he whirled around, "No! No fish! Don't touch the animals!"

Ace shared a bemused look with Quinn, brow quirking. "You said that already, didn't think fish was included. So why not?"

"Well- that is, you see- a lot of pirates have come to this island over the last seventeen years only they aren't after the treasure here. They're all after the animals." He scowled darkly, not that they could see. "They'd fetch a nice price."

"The animals? What's so special about them?"

As if asking that question had an effect on the island around them Quinn slowed to a stop as a rather interesting group of birds hopped out along a tree branch, each of their wings held up in what might've been a salute from the looks of it. She felt her mouth drop open in sheer surprise. They were covered beak to talon in a mix of black and white fur.

"P-Panda-birds?"

They were some of the cutest things she'd ever seen in her life.

Ace let out his own noise of surprise, practically sparkling as he picked up some crazy creature off the ground, turning to show it off to her. "Oy, Quinn! Check out this weird snake!" It had quite the set of fuzzy bunny ears and bucked teeth.

"That's amazing!" Momentarily forgetting her allergies she let the creature wind up her arm and let out a rather odd hiss at her. "They're like hybrids. And it's such weird mixes too…"

Gaimon gaped at them. Then his face turned red with anger. "HEY! I said don't touch the animals, ya hear!"

They had the decency to look guilty as Quinn set the snake-rabbit back onto the ground. "'Sorry." They muttered in unison. Though Ace bowed in what she assumed was the appropriate manner.

Quinn added a painful sneeze for pathetic effect.

She shouldn't have picked up that snake…

Gaimon huffed at them. "So you can see why people come after them?"

"Yep!"

"I wouldn't worry about us though." Quinn sniffed.

Ace gave her a cheeky grin, "Yeah, even if we took one I think you'd die before we got more than a few hours out." She sent him an annoyed glare.

"So long as you understand and don't try anything…" Gaimon shook his head. "Hear we are: the watering hole!"

They would like to say that it was a majestic place filled to the brim with opportunities of food and quelled hunger but that'd just be even more disappointing. It was just a freshwater pond surrounded closely by bushes covered in berries, nuts, seeds and mushrooms. Of course, Ace was shooting past her and grabbing handfuls of what looked to be a rather suspicious looking plant but Quinn couldn't be sure, muttering, "I don't know what I was expecting."

She poked a mushroom that looked like it'd had a bite taken out of it. It was secreting something goopy and white. "Uhh… Are you _sure_ that these are edible?"

"I haven't died yet!"

"...That's not very reassuring."

But she sighed and got to work collecting food, sneaking bites of things that looked moderately okay to eat. They'd need food once they got back on the road- er, _sea._

Ace happily munched on whatever he could get his hands on. Making sure to ignore the snap or hiss of an animal every so often, or tuck some cool looking creature out of the way so he could get at an armful of something else. To him this place was practically a goldmine. Even if he couldn't hunt something down and eat it. "Quinn, let's get those old barrels we have and fill them up!"

"Already on it."

Nice. He grinned. They were not gonna run out of food again if he could help it.

The day went on and Ace and Quinn were in no hurry to jump back on their ship and take off, needing to stretch their legs and gather food. Gaimon seemed to enjoy their presence, apparently he hadn't spoken much to the previous groups that landed on his little island and instead scared them off with some sort of god-voice effect, but even as he jabbered on with them and asked every last question he could think of about the outside world they could tell that every time one of them left his sight for more than five minutes he'd grow increasingly uncomfortable and antsy.

Quinn settled down, falling into a seat across from the fire they'd set up at some point once it started getting darker. Her eyes and nose were a furious looking red and she looked absolutely miserable. "You know I'm kind of surprised you didn't point out Ace's tic-tac-toe mess."

"As a pirate you learn to not comment about people's strange tattoos." Gaimon winced. "It can lead to some pretty bad reactions."

"Kehehe. Oh, those aren't tattoos."

"They're not?"

"Yeah. We just didn't have any paper."

That was enough to send Gaimon into roaring guffaws.

"What'cha guys laughing about?" Ace asked, sliding down from a tree and munching on an apple. "Hey, Quinn, you should try these. They're really good!"

She just barely caught the fruit before it went flying over her head, mumbling a small thanks, "I was just mentioning how I kicked your ass in tic-tac-toe and-!"

"You didn't! You cheated!" Ace exclaimed, cutting her off. His finger shoved into her face.

"All's fair in love and war."

"It was just a game of tic-tac-toe!"

They paused as Gaimon's laughter tapered off and he wiped his eyes, "Ah- it's so good to be around people again after all these years! You two are amazing!"

It had Ace flustered and Quinn rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. The two of them muttering an almost inaudible 'thanks'.

Quinn shook her head, mind getting back on track. It was late now. Not quite night but dark enough it was beginning to get a bit hard to see and starting to make the wildlife around them spooky. "So what was the deal with that big bird we saw?"

"Huh?"

"You know, the one that dropped you by us."

Ace piped up to voice his own concerns. "If it pissed you off and you want to get rid of it I could take care of that!" He grins wickedly. "Bet it'd taste good…"

Gaimon doesn't seem impressed by the offer. She was almost thinking of pinching him but decided not to, instead giving Ace a dry look. He was just hoping for the chance to grab some actually meat.

-Which, she could understand. But she had the mind to keep her mouth shut.

"Oh, yes. Well-" He coughed into his fist, cheeks burning a bright red. He scratched at his moss covered head and Quinn tried not to wrinkle her nose at the dried crumbling dirt that fell off him. "It's a bit of an embarrassing story, really."

"More embarrassing than getting trapped in that box?"

"...Hey, that was a serious accident! It could've happened to anybody!"

Quinn and Ace shared a glance. No. No it couldn't have.

"Grk- you see, it all started about a week ago," he huffed, deciding that he might as well explain, "when one of the squirrel-flamingos laid some eggs." Not the answer either of them were expecting but they motioned for him to continue. "I was just so excited that I'd check up on them every day. But then…"

 _It was a struggle but it'd all be worth it for just a peek. Gaimon's feet scraped along the tree trunk as he climbed, fists full of leaves and handfuls of bark. With one last heave he managed to pull himself the rest of the way up._

 _There. Among the branches, lay the most beautiful looking eggs he'd ever seen. It was almost enough to bring a tear to his eye._

 _That is, until, the largest bird on the island leaned down to stare at him. Gaze absolutely murderous with maternal protection._

 _He'd screamed as he was picked up by its beak and flown far, far out of sight of the island. The only thing out among the deep blue ocean beneath him was a curiously boat-shaped dot. And then he was falling._

"It was the squirrel-flamingo's mother that dropped me!"

"Chehahahaha!" Ace pointed at him and laughed, watching his face color several different shades. "You deserve it then!"

"Shut up! No I didn't it!"

"You did! You idiot! You don't go into another animals territory unprepared!"

Quinn nodded. Ace had a point.

That said, "Who knew squirrels were such a malicious species?" Quinn mused.

"No not the squirrels!" Gaimon shook his head. "It's all the flamingos part."

"...The flamingos?"

"Ain't those the big pink birds?" Ace asked. "Nobles have all these weird things with them on it that they put in the ground wherever they want."

"Yeah. Wait- Why would they just shove it in the ground randomly?"

"Don't know. You tell me."

"I- How would I know-" She shook her head, turning back to Gaimon. "We talking about the same big pink birds?"

He seemed to pale. Nodding frantically, "They're the most vicious animal on the whole island! Even the tiger-bears and lion-pigs cower before them."

She frowned, brow furrowing. "...So they're like… Geese?"

That was sort of understandable. Geese were viscous.

"No, they're like Flamingos!" Gaimon said incredulously.

"...I don't think we're on the same page."

"Chehaha. Why is this so hard for you to get Quinn?" Ace chuckled, poking her in the cheek. He sounded kinda condescending. She almost bit his finger. Settling instead on fixing him with the most disgruntled look she could muster.

"Sorry. Just can't see it."

Gaimon looked on at her with pity.

"I hope you never have to figure it out. Flamingos are one of the most violent and destructive birds." He clapped his hands together, as if to share some great wisdom. As far as she was concerned he was just spouting bullshit. "They will lead the world on a path of destruction - and pink feathers."

She opened her mouth to say something. Fell short. Opened it again and settled on: "What the _fu-_ "

"But enough of that! It's getting late."

He practically conked out then and there. Leaving Quinn with her hand halfway thrown up in sheer incredulousness with her mouth hanging open, eye twitching, "uh-huh?!" Expression decidedly pained.

She leaned over to Ace. "Do you have any idea what he was going on about?"

"Oh. Not a freaking clue."

"Hm."

It was a small comfort.

The minutes ticked by and the quiet between them grew more than a little awkward. Especially hearing how Gaimon snored. Quinn found herself shifting uncomfortably, feeling Ace eye her out of the corner of his eye.

"...Thanks, by the way."

"Huh?"

"For pulling me out of the way of the gunshot."

"Oh. Sure."

Yeah, you'd think after spending the better part of a week with someone in a small, confined space it'd be enough to not have long awkward spans of time where no one said anything. But look where they were now.

"Don't do it again. I can take care of myself."

"...Sure."

Sounds like someone was a bit pissy too. For someone so prideful you'd think he wouldn't have surrendered to Gaimon's plea after he shot at him. Quinn frowned, oh? There was a thought.

They sat in silence for a few moments longer.

"So when are we gonna go look for the treasure?"

"We can go now."

Yeah, that seemed about right.

-0-

It was pitch black. Darker than it had any right to be. Because of the lack of light they were left stumbling through the forest like a pair of drunken teens. Feet catching on roots and nearly running face first into a tree, Quinn grumbled as she glared at Ace's silhouette. He was trying to wave her off.

"Go further away!"

"What- why?"

"'Cause I…" It came out mumbled.

"What?"

"I need to…" Mumbled. Again.

If it was lighter out she would've been able to see his ears turn red.

"Ace, what're you even saying?"

"Piss break." He hissed, red faced. "Go 'way."

"I can just stand behind a tree and face away."

"N _o!_ Shoo!"

She swore, throwing her hands up. "Why? You act like I haven't heard you piss in the week we've been trapped on a boat together!" Of all times for him to suddenly become bashful.

"Right. We were stuck together so it couldn't be helped. This is different!"

Quinn couldn't help but let out a breathless laugh. "God, you are so friggin' weird, Ace. I don't understand you at all." She turned away. "One second you're completely nonchalant and audacious, the next you're acting like a shy Japanese schoolgirl from a bad rom-com anime-"

"It's the principle of it!"

She put her hands up in surrender.

"Go away, Captain's orders!"

"I'm going! I'm going! Call me when your done."

The first time he'd ever pulled the Captain card and it was to take a piss. Quinn couldn't help but snort and shake her head.

This was ridiculous.

Whatever.

In looking for the treasure that Gaimon and Ace had talked about Quinn could vaguely remember that there was actually nothing on the island but a bunch of empty chests. That said she could not for the life of her figure out where the hell those chests actually were. And it was bothering her.

On... a cliff? She _thinks_ that's right.

Quinn purses her lips and tries to squint through the dark.

Cliff... Cliff... Cliff...

" _Psst_ \- Quinn."

She ends up punching first.

"GAH- what the-" Ace nurses a busted lip and Quinn hisses, holding her wrist. "OY! QUINN!" He seethes. "What the hell was that for?!"

"You scared me! Don't jump out like that!"

"I called you. Twice!"

"I- You did?"

"Yes!"

"Then why were you being so creepy about it?"

"Creepy?! I wasn't being creepy at all!"

"You were..." she tried to find the word, "lurking."

" _Lurking?!_ " He chokes as he repeats it, sounding absolutely incredulous. And a little bit peeved. "I was not. You just weren't paying attention."

Her shoulders hug her neck and she looks away, "That's... one theory."

"...You punch harder than I thought you would." Ace grumbles, pulling his finger away from his bloodied lip. Quinn doesn't know whether to be offended or not, wondering just how much he thought she'd pull her punches. "Don't do that again."

"Don't lurk and we won't have a problem." He shoots her a look and she raises her hands up defensively. "What? You don't walk up behind a woman in the dark. Everybody knows that! We got instincts, ya know?"

He continues to give her _a look_.

"I'm just saying..."

Still doing it.

"Okay, I overreacted! Happy?"

She throws up her hands and pushes past him when that doesn't change his reaction at all. "Whatever! I think I saw something over this way, let's check it out."

Ace's face breaks, "Chehaha!" He laughs. "You cracked really fast. Don't get all bent out of shape over it Quinn." He pushes past her. "Anyways what'd'you see? Was it treasure?"

"No but it's better than trees and flat land. It's a big rock."

"...I'm not sure if you've noticed, Quinn, but that's not much better."

"Mn- Well, it's more of a mini-mountain, really."

"Really?" He looks. "I don't know- I'd say it's more of a steep hill. All the way around."

"It's like the island thought about having a mountain but gave up part way through..."

Ace thinks that's just called a hill.

"Think anything is up there?"

"Wanna do a coin flip with my fruit powers? Yes, heads. No, tails."

He lit up at the suggestion. "That's a good idea! Let's do that!" Maybe her Devil Fruit was useful after all. Quinn pulled out the coin they used from before, flipping it up and slapping it to her wrist. Ace peered down at it. A grin splitting across his face. "There is! C'mon, let's climb up!"

"A-Ah- Shouldn't one of us stay down here-"

"No way! You climb too!"

Well there went that plan out the window.

Quinn glared up the rock. It was incredibly sheer but Ace had already managed to pull himself up a few feet. They couldn't even see the top of it in the dark. She grumbled, scrabbling up the wall after him. Or trying to. She cursed as the grip she had crumbled beneath her hands, sliding back down.

"Careful, Ace! The walls not stable!"

He opened his mouth to say something but cut off.

"Ace?"

Quinn frowned when there was no answer, dusting a mark of gold over her hand and flipping the coin again. "Hmph." She twitched as she checked it, taking two big steps back and away from the rock.

As if on cue the moment she moved there was a loud thud, the sound of rocks crumbling, and a distinctly surprised yelp. Quinn had the decency to wince before crouching down next to the collapsed Ace. She leaned over him. "Hey, Ace."

"...Whaaat?" He groaned, breathing hard.

"I think that maybe, just maybe, you should be more careful next time." Quinn smirked. "Just maybe."

He scowled, eyes narrowing. "Are you going to do this every time?"

"No. B _ut_..." He groaned at the but. "I like to think of myself as a voice of reason. And I think you're gonna be quite the folly to it." A smile quirked itself over her lips.

"That's-"

A twig snapped.

He faltered. Quinn simultaneously froze when she heard a loud gasp. "Oh. That's not good." They muttered in unison, turning to spot Gaimon, gaping at them in disbelief.

"Y-You- You-"

They winced as he stuttered, slowly raising an accusing finger.

"Uh- it's not what it looks like?"

That didn't work.

"YOU'RE AFTER MY TREASURE AFTER ALL!"

"Yeah. Sorry?"

Gaimon's face contorted in rage, "NOBODY TOUCHES MY TREASURE! YOU- YOU DAMN PIRATE SCUM!" He roared. "GET OFF MY ISLAND!"

Quinn couldn't help but glance around as the forest suddenly burst into low growls and high pitched hisses. She had a bad feeling about this.

"Oh, yeah?" Ace just had to go and challenge him, a cocky grin on his face. "You and what army?"

"Uh- Ace-?" She took a step back as shadows slowly began to appear out of the corner of her eye and inch towards them. "I think... that army." He followed her gaze.

"Oh."

"GET THEM!" Gaimon shouted.

" _Ah._ "

Quinn squeaked as they were forced to take off running. Dodging fluffy feet, scaly talons, and toothy maws of hybrid animals trying to take them down on their way out.

"Oh, that one looks tasty-"

"Less talk, more run!"

They hit the deck of their ship and were far out at sea before the animals and birds finally let up, nursing scratches and teeth marks and clothes just a bit ripped up. Quinn collapsed onto her back with a loud groan, heaving as she tried to recatch her breath and steady her beating heart.

"Oh, I hope this isn't going to be a thing..." She moaned. "Being chased off every island that we go to is not going to be fun."

"Chehaha. It's not that bad, Quinn? Besides, we're pirates, I kinda expect that to happen."

"Ugh. Unfortunately."

Well, she took in a deep breath, for once her sinuses feeling like they weren't clogged, at least she could breath again.

.

.

.

 **This chapter was really fun to write and it was mostly for me to get a handle on writing Ace and Quinn. At the moment, I don't think I've got Ace quite down yet but I do like what I have of him. In part I think this is kinda because I haven't written in his Narcolepsy yet, which I have a reason for, and we all know Ace shines when he's fighting. Which there hasn't been any of yet.**

 **But! We did get some info on Quinn's Devil Fruit, the Luck Luck Fruit- I actually chose this fruit before One Piece Film: Gold ever came out and I only recently saw it for the first time because I actually forgot it existed and when Baccarat and a few others popped up I was incredibly surprised. The movie actually has more than one fruit I was planning on using- fruits that I chose based on characters and concepts from other anime or shows I'd seen. Quinn was based on a One Piece fic where Sanji had bad luck, I unfortunately do not remember what it was, Domino(Marvel), Tia Dalma from Pirates of the Caribbean, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng from Miraculous, among other things. Originally she either was going to have a zoan type fruit, an arachnid of some sort, or simply be fruitless. But I decided against it for one reason or another.**

 **But, anyways, because of me creating the Luck Luck Fruit before it was introduced, the powers work a bit differently.**

 **Devil Fruit**

 **Luck Luck Fruit {unawakened}**

 **Blackmarket Price: [minimum] 1,000,000,000 B**

 **Current User: Quinn Varela.**

 **Type: Paramecia.**

 **Primary abilities: to increase a person's karmic level.**

 **Usage requirements: [current] skin-on-skin contact, user can use it on themselves, must be a living/sentient object. For example, plants and trees do not count.**

 **Notable information: Leaves a gold mark on contact, disappears once used.**

 **The price for this fruit is so high is because, well, its a luck fruit. You could walk into pretty much any casino and clean them out. And, if you wanted to, I bet a smart and particularly nefarious user could bankrupt a small country if they played their cards right. Buying it is an investment, but a worthy one if you have the skills.**


	5. Belle I

The heat wasn't as bad as it had been. Ace was less burnt than usual but was still peeling something awful and scratching ruthlessly at his wrists with an uncomfortable expression. It didn't take a genius to realize that he was in pain and she pursed her lips. "Stop that." But Quinn was much more disgusted by the rubbery shine of burnt flesh and the flakes of dead skin to really focus on that.

Ace didn't stop.

"Stop it."

Quinn scowled, looking up finally.

"Stop."

Ace paused, glaring down at his skin with contempt. "Why?"

"For a number of reasons, really." She muttered curses as she fumbled with the needle in her hand and accidentally stabbed herself. Oh, ow. "Mostly because it's gross."

Ace pulled a face at the answer, clearly disgruntled. "Feels weird…" He muttered stubbornly.

"It'll leave scars." She tacked on. "Also, it'll hurt worse if you get another sunburn on top of it- damn it! Again?!"

"Ah- you don't have to do that. I can-"

"No." Quinn immediately denied stubbornly. She glared harshly at the needle and thread in her hand. "I can sew just fine- it's the damn waves that are throwing me off."

Ace turned to stare into the water and agree.

She was right, the waves were beyond turbulent. Not stormy, but naturally ferocious- Quinn would describe it as lowkey whitewater rafting. Only without any form of control for her or Ace. They had been swept up in some sort of current an hour or two ago and hadn't been able to do anything really, even attempting to row tore up the paddles they had on board the moment it went more than a few inches deep.

Which, while concerning, there didn't seem to be anything they could do about it, so Quinn continued the task that she had given herself with an out of character ironclad will. So, before Ace could even attempt to put his bullet ridden hat back together, she had taken it and had begun meticulously putting it's pieces back together because it surprisingly hadn't lost any of its fabric and only needed to be woven back into place.

She was good at sewing. It had been something she'd spent hours and hours being taught and even more hours experimenting with and was one of the few things that she was confident in her own skill to do well. But, coupled with the waves slapping their boat around like they were in a pinball game and the already tough material that the hat was made out of, that skill was pretty much made null and void as she stabbed herself for probably the twentieth time since beginning. There was even a particularly bad one that had gotten under her nail that was slowly filling up with blood and a stinging, frustrating pain. Quinn muttered under her breath quietly, ignoring Ace's bemused look.

"What?"

She was a bit snappish.

And Ace was kind of amused watching her get more and more frustrated and having to tear out a missed stitch and retry it from scratch. He rested his cheek on the palm of his hand, absentmindedly still scratching at his wrist. "You're really getting into that, aren't you?"

"Yes, I suppose I am." She twitched, glancing at him. "My abuela taught me how to sew. So I _better-_ "

She stabbed herself. Again.

"-make this absolutely perfect!" Quinn huffed out a low breath of discontent. "And will you stop getting dead skin everywhere!" She kicked him in the thigh.

Not hard, mind you, but enough to get her point across.

Ace yelped. "I wasn't- ah." He coughed into his fist awkwardly when he realized that he _had_ in fact been tearing the skin away again. "Your e-boo-lah?" He changed the subject quickly.

"It means grandmother. And it's abuela."

"Why don't you just say grandmother then?"

"Habit. She wasn't bilingual like me and refused to respond to anything that wasn't Spanish. And why wouldn't I call her by what she wants?"

Quinn brought the hat up to eye level, narrowing her eyes at the orange stitches that matched the hat's color perfectly. It was definitely lucky that she had managed to find thread in the correct color because she refused to mismatch the stitches in any way. Oddly enough, the hat had a pattern of stitches on its edges and circling around the brim- a cute decoration that she was determined to copy once she finished the actual repair work on the hat. Though, at this point in time, she was way more focused on mending the break so it looked more natural and even better than it had before. "How long have you had this hat?" Quinn asked.

The dye was somewhat faded. Especially at the top of it. Like it had spent way too long under the sun and had dried out like a prune as a result. From what she knew about Ace's time running around in a forest with limited protection from the elements she was willing to bet that that was exactly what happened.

That was, surprisingly enough, the worst thing about it, if you excused the bullet hole. It looked incredibly well cared for and the smiley faces and beads shined like they were brand new- a feat in itself because Quinn was willing to bet that if they went so much as a week without being taken care of they would be smudged with dirt or, at the very least, be duller than they were.

"Few years." Ace answered shortly. "My brother gave it to me on my birthday, maybe?"

"Maybe?"

"I think."

"You _think?_ "

"I don't remember!" He laughed, completely unconcerned. "Why do you ask?"

She pursed her lips, "You should see about redying it."

"Ah, yeah- I was planning on it but I don't want to mess up and ruin it." He frowned thoughtfully. "I'll probably try it once we're in a place that's not, you know, as bumpy." He gestured and, as if to prove his point, they hit a particularly nasty bump that had Quinn grunting and throwing a hand out for balance.

"Uh- that is a terrible idea." Quinn bit out thinly, changing her grip on the hat. "You do know that you can pay people to do it for you, right? Someone who has experience. And is their literal job to know how to do."

And given that she doubted this world had the concept of an assembly line in anything that wasn't built on slavery and/or governmentally funded it probably wouldn't be too hard to find a master seamstress or someone else who could dye it for him without completely destroying the hats integrity like she would assume Ace would.

He'd definitely mess it up.

Definitely.

He'd do well at first, but then he would mess up horribly on the final step or something and ruin it. Quinn was calling it now.

"Hell, I could probably do it. And I've only tie-dyed things." She paused before adding. "That wasn't an offer by the way. I'd probably mess up too. Or not use the right dye or something. Find a seamstress, you get me?"

Ace blinked at her in surprise, "Wait- they'll do that for you? I thought that…" He trailed off, thinking it over. "Oh. I guess they would, wouldn't they?"

"If you pay them the right price."

They hit another bump.

"Dios mío, this is getting ridiculous!" Quinn snapped furiously, ignoring Ace's confused head tilt at her exclamation. "What the hell is up with this current?!" The waters they were stuck in were only serving to make her mood get worse and worse.

Ace whistled at the waves hitting the side of their ship. Not so much as moving an inch from his cross legged sitting position despite the harshness. In contrast Quinn was surprised she hadn't rolled out of the boat by now, barely able to keep herself up straight long enough before she was almost being sent sprawling to the other side of the boat. Ace took one look at her face and laughed. "Chehahaha! You're not used to this are you?!"

She gave him a dark look and tore out another failed stitch a bit more aggressively than she probably should have.

He raised his hands up in surrender, "I was joking- just joking! Don't hurt my hat!"

Huh. Note to self, in order to get Ace to do whatever you want: hold his hat hostage. Good to know. Quinn rolled her eyes, "I'm not going to hurt your hat. You think so low of me." They hit a bump. Quinn bit her tongue to keep the yelp in, "...ow…"

"Okay, stop sewing." Ace finally ordered with an exasperated twitch of his eye. "This is just getting painful to watch."

Did Quinn whine with all the skill and expertise of a stubborn and graceless child? Why yes, yes she did. "Noo…" And further hid the needle that was now stabbed rather deep into her palm, not that she needed to since Ace already saw it and was giving her an unimpressed look. Quinn returned it with a blank one of her own before sighing and yanking the needle out with little more than a wince, "Fine. I'll put it away for now- but no wearing your hat until I'm completely done!" She slapped his hand away lightly when he went to reach for it back. "I don't want you to loosen or pull any of the stitches."

He grumbled but at least didn't try again, nodding in acceptance.

Quinn pulled out her bag and carefully put it inside so that it was wrapped by cloth, and so that it wouldn't end up getting bent out of shape anytime soon, slinging the strap over her head.

"Is it just me or have these currents been getting even worse?" Ace asked, peering into the water. "They're not- _sppf!_ " He sputtered when he got a face full of water spraying him in the face.

"Kehehe-" Quinn tried to muffle the quiet shriek of laughter that threatened to spill, taking in his sopping wet face with no small amount of amusement.

He gave her a dry- er, wet look.

"Y-Yes, they've been getting quite a bit harsher. I'm surprised you didn't notice from my complaining."

"..Figured you were being dramatic..."

" _Hey."_

"Huh, maybe I just- woah!"

Both Quinn and Ace threw out their hands quickly to try and catch themselves as the boat suddenly dipped and jerked, nearly sending Quinn rolling out. And she grunted as her chest slammed into the side of the ship, barely able to catch herself on the woods edge. There was a great creaking noise and the boat shuddered beneath them. It took a couple of blinks to realize that they had been completely turned around.

"Ah- it stopped." Quinn noticed with a note of surprise in her voice. The waters had calmed; they fell unmoveable, still and undisturbed by anything but a few ripples. Ace ooed at it and Quinn was quick to follow. "That's… amazing!" Quinn breathed, face flushed with childlike wonder.

Ace followed up with a more crass exclamation. "That's so cool!"

And it really was.

Beneath the still surface of the water a storm brewed fierce and wild. Long, whirring currents that ripped and tore in savage loops without so much as unsettling the waters on top. Adding onto that fact the water was startling clear, to the point that they could pick out the beginnings of reefs- the torrents of water twisted through them, like pathways leading along.

Quinn gaped in disbelief. Trying to figure out how it was possible for the water to move in such an unnatural and beautiful way.

...Ace stuck his hand in the water.

 _"Yeeow!"_ He sucked in a yelp, ripping his hand back out. "What the hell?! It-"

Quinn facepalmed, roughly hitting him in the shoulder with her own. Again, not hard enough to actually do anything other than catch his attention. "Well don't touch it!"

"It tore my hand up?"

"Huh?"

Woah.

"See?!"

Quinn ran a hand through her hair in a mix of shock and awe. "-Are you okay?"

He had stuck his arm in up to the elbow and, from the tip of his fingers to the middle of his wrist, the skin was absolutely shredded, like someone had taken a potato peeler to it. It wasn't deep cuts, no, but there was a fine outer layer of skin hanging off his arm and Quinn couldn't help but hiss in sympathy.

"That… looks like it hurts."

"Hm? Not really?" Ace waved her off, still focused on the stripped off skin. "It's mostly superficial."

Quinn narrowed her eyes in disbelief, eyeing the injury. He wasn't bleeding much, in fact probably no more than the blood she'd gotten from the needle pricks on her fingers. Still, "Yeah, _superficial._ " She was calling bullshit.

Ace was already back to looking at the water and Quinn took the sudden calmness to stand up, steadying herself on the ships small mast. "This is so cool…" Ace muttered gleefully, eyes wide and inching dangerously close to the water again. "It's like the currents are just out of range of our ship. I mean, look! I think it's strong enough to tear wood apart."

"Don't touch it again!" Quinn snapped back over her shoulder. "But uh… I think you're right." She paused, "I think there's what- several inches before those torrents start? And that space is what's keeping us safe." It wasn't a hard conclusion to come to, more of a guess than anything, but it was evidenced by the fact that they weren't currently capsized and that Ace had only been hurt up to his wrist. That's what? Six? Eight inches?

Not a lot of leeway.

"The currents look harsher the further they go down." Ace added. "Hey- wait- they're beginning to disappear." At that he nearly capsized them by just standing up and Quinn stumbled to try and catch her bearings. "Wha- no!" He jumped up, chasing the torrents all the way to the back of the boat. Quinn gripped the mast harder as he shoved past her. "Quinn, let's turn the ship around! I wanna see what's up with those currents!"

"That's not such a good idea."

At her tone he frowned and looked up at her. Quinn didn't acknowledge the pressed look on his face, simply pointing back the way they came. "Look."

Ace followed her finger.

Oh, yeah. So it wasn't such a good idea after all.

There was an obvious line of white spray where they had come from but beyond that it was as if the waves were even harsher than they could have ever imagined.

Ace blinked, "Did we come through that?"

It looked like it could easily tear their boat to shreds.

And oddly enough, it looked even harsher than the waves they'd dealt with coming in.

"Yeah…" Quinn hummed thoughtfully. "I don't know about you but I don't think we'll be able to get back through that without, you know, drowning. Me much faster than you." She chewed on her lip, glancing at him. "Unless you wanna go for it?"

Ace flushed, "Oy, don't tease me! I'm not stupid-! I'm not gonna head straight in to obvious danger like that, especially when it could kill you too."

"Huh?" Quinn blinked. "I wasn't teasing. I was being serious. If you really want to make a go at it and see if we'll make it out then it's fine. I mean, we'd most likely die but…" If he wanted to play his chances then she wasn't about to stop him, she eyed the waters indifferently. Hey, could she use her fruit to get them through? If it was based on chance then she probably could- wait, no. She'd probably have to effect the boat too and Quinn was pretty sure her fruit was limited to living things. She ran her hand along the mast. Yeah, no. That wasn't going to work anytime soon.

Ace stared up at her with an expression of vague horror.

"What? What's with that look?"

"You'd let me steer the ship into waters that'll clearly kill us." He asked in disbelief. "If I _wanted_ to."

Oh, when he put it like that…

Quinn held her hands up in defense. "Man, I don't know your life!" A poor defense.

"It'd kill you too!" Ace snapped, slapping the air.

"Oh, right."

"You _forgot_?!" He exclaimed before shaking his head, amused. "You're… weird, Quinn."

"Thanks." She muttered and turned back to the front of the ship. There were tiny bits of land beginning to pop up, nothing more than rocks with moss so far but she could pick out the shadow of an island in front of them. "An island's coming up."

"It is?!" Ace whipped around to spot it, a grin forming on his face. "That's great! And it looks like it actually has people on it too!"

"Hopefully they're not trapped in treasure chests…"

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing," she waved him off. "Oh hey, what were you talking about? There's still currents."

She pointed down because there really was. Nowhere near the scale or beauty of the ones before, sure, but they were definitely there. Quite a bit further down too and nowhere near as harsh from the looks of it. Not only that but they… seemed to be going directly to the island? Huh. Weird.

Ace pouted, "Not as cool ones."

Quinn felt a drop of sweat slide down her face. "Okayyy…" She drawls simply.

Before-

 _"Oh my god, you're still scratching?!_ "

"Gyeh." Ace flinches. "Whoops."

Her eye twitched something fierce and she grabbed him by the strap of his own bag, yanking him back. "Stand still." She ordered thinly. Already sticking her hand into his pack without warning and ignoring Ace's indignant shouts as she rooted through his stuff. She pulled out a light grey sweater made out of a thin, airy material. "Take off your shirt and put this on. It'll help you ignore it."

He sputtered, doing as told, arguing the whole way. "A turtleneck?! It's hot out, Quinn!"

"I've been wearing a jacket this whole time. And it's not that hot out today." She gestured to the loose, tiny bit too big jacket she'd been wearing since Saigen. That said, she took it off and tied it around her waist. When worn with her black arm sleeves and her leg sleeves- they weren't leggings, she refused to call them leggings, they stopped at mid thigh and only reached her ankles- it was way too overbearing. "You can do it for a day or two." She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, but you're wearing shorts…" He muttered under his breath.

" _Your_ wearing shorts!"

"But your wearing the super short shorts that girls' are always wearing!" He retorted, pointed at them, Quinn crossed her legs. "And a tank top!" He gestured to the white top.

"So?"

Damn, she needed new clothes. Majority of her outfits were the exact same thing or were incredibly similar.

"Just put on the damn shirt!"

Ace grumbled, sliding it on over his head, pulling his necklace out so it could rest over the top of it and rolling one sleeve up for a second to reattach his elbow guard. "You're so weird Quinn." He huffed. "It's just skin."

"Dead skin, Ace. I don't even… I shouldn't have to explain this. It's gross. That's that." Quinn deadpanned. "Hand me your old shirt." He tossed her his yellow shirt and Quinn narrowly caught it before it went flying overboard, stuffing it back in his bag-

 _Oh~?_

What's this?

Quinn pulled out a simple pill bottle from Ace's bag, eyeing the label. Huh. It looked like he'd purchased it just before the beginning of the year, and subsequently just before he'd set out to sea if she had her dates right, there was even a mark on it with a smiley face that said "first purchase" and "Narcolepsy" written underneath. Well, that explained why she hadn't dealt with any fainting spells up until this point. She pursed her lips. Though it was a wonder why he'd gone through the trouble to get it, the anime-Ace... or the future-Ace didn't seem like he'd been using any sort of medicine. Instead letting his Narcolepsy run as rampant as he pleased-

"Hey, Quinn, did you see something?"

She flinched, turning back to Ace. He was distractedly observing the water again, more fiercely than he had been before. Quinn made a noise to deny the question. "No." She dropped the bottle back into his bag as if her hand was on fire, snapping it shut without another glance. Tucking a wild strand of hair behind her ear, "Why? Did you see something?"

He squinted.

"I think so."

There wasn't anything immediate to pick out.

Actually there didn't seem to be _anything_ worthy of note other than the fact that one of the many colorful schools of fish had been upsetted. Quinn ran her thumb thoughtfully over her bottom lip and gave the sea a sudden critical eye, "What was it?"

"A big shadow!"

"A… big shadow?"

Quinn deadpanned.

"Ace, that could be literally anything."

"Ah, I meant that it was moving super fast!" He tacked on as an explanation, as if it helped in any way. It didn't. "See! There it is again."

She must've not turned fast enough because there was nothing to see.

 _Actually_ nothing this time, all the schools of fish had disappeared from the looks of it. Wait- not true, she could still see them running away, already having gotten quite the distance away from them. "Huh. They're fast."

"Did it scare them off?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, I don't see anything- _aa_." Quinn let out a small gasp, "...Yeah, that'll probably chase fish away."

Ace made to move, an incredulous noise caught in the back of his throat.

Brown eyes blinked up at them.

 _"Goddamn."_

Looking up at them was a tan face framed by potent green markings, bright and insidious; like eyeshadow and liner on their eyes, covering their ears and part of their cheeks, down their neck, and sprinkled throughout their features. Most notably, both Quinn and Ace had to blink in recognition, the green was oddly reminiscent of scales.

Bright, flaming red hair spiked up on their head, soft and striking, a mix of shades that came together to make it look like a flame on their head, held back by a simple white, folded bandana. They were grinning, wide and bright, showing off a mix of human and shark teeth. Possibly the most shocking of all features, despite the oddness and brightness of the others, were the three scar-like gills torn into their cheeks. They were uneven but prominent, and since their face was still underwater, they opened and closed with every breath they took. They looked like… whiskers?

A few bubbles drifted to the surface out of their mouth.

Ace tilted his head. "A… kitty?"

All at once the grin was wiped off their face.

"Gyeahhh! NO!" They shot up out of the water so fast that Quinn reflexively threw her hands up in defense. Ace simply leant back as they slammed their hands into the ships rails and used it as a platform to lift themselves up so they could, apparently, yell at them face-to-face. "I'm not a _cat_!"

Water sprayed them in the face.

"Pfhhh- ta- hey?!" Ace coughed, wiping a hand over his face and throwing himself at their catfish friend, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. "What was that for?!"

Quinn sputtered similarly. Shaking wildly to try and get the water out of her eyes, it clung to her hair thickly, making her feel rumpled and gross. She raised a hand to slide her now wet-hair out of her face.

 _"I said,"_ and Ace and the catfish boy barred their teeth at each other, "I'm not a cat! They're the pussy of the animal kingdom!"

"That's what they're known for being, yes." Quinn remarked thinly, scowling at the redhead.

He shot her an offended look. Ignoring Ace's hold completely and gesturing towards themselves, "Tch! Can't you tell-?" He hissed. "I'm a tiger shark!"

Ace insensitively decided to point out, "You have no fins."

He seemed to steam and sizzle. Quinn wondered dimly if his hair really was going to burst into flames.

"Fine. _Half_ tiger shark." He clarified grumpily, eye twitching. "And I do have fins!" Water was thrown into their faces again.

"Spffh- stop that!"

"Please," Quinn wiped herself off, "I'm really not a big fan of water anymore." Oh, ugh, she could feel it sliding down her shirt and beginning to squelch in her shoes. Damn it, ew. She didn't want to have to clean that crap out. "Ahg… that feels gross…" Ace and the catfish sweatdropped, the former exasperated by her, admittedly misplaced, concern and the latter incredulous to her total nonchalance towards them.

Catfish shook his head, "No way! You guys are rude, and here I was thinking about helf _shh_ \- CHEOW!"

There was a shocking spray of blood.

"Chehahaha!" Ace cackled as they nursed their face. "You just bit through your own tongue!"

"Ish naw fushnny, you bashtah!" He howled noisily, clutching onto his face and spitting out a wad of blood. "Thisss hursh-" He made a face, eyes squinted as he tried to concentrate on the slur of his words, trying to get rid of it. "This hurts so bad. Ack!"

His eyes flung open suddenly, mouth falling open, as if he suddenly had a horrific realization. Quinn flinched back at the expression, that couldn't be good.

"Shit!" He threw in another few choice swears that Quinn couldn't pick out all that well because he suddenly ducked his head underneath the water and let out a muffled scream that had Ace and Quinn glancing at one another out of the corner of their eyes, bemused. "Oh, no, no, no!" He pulled back out with a howl and Quinn followed his wide gaze to the blood that was already beginning to fade into pink lines in the water.

Quinn had a bad feeling.

Ace leaned over, still snickering. "What's got you so bent out of shape?"

"Crap, crap, crap! I can't beleesh-" he threw his hands up to his head, "-belieb-beLIEVE that I just spit blood into the water! Sonsh ova bishe- damn it! I can't even speak right, right now!"

"Uh…" Quinn anxiously shuffled in place, "Hate to interrupt your freak attack, man, but- uh-" He whipped towards her and she wiped off the drops that fell on her face. "What's got you so scared?"

"Scared?!" He practically shrieked, voice sharp and oddly high-pitched and cracking, Quinn noticed, feeling a powerful urge to cover her ears. "Y-You callin' me a coward?!" From the way he jolted back and flushed when she simply gave him a dead look and pursed her lips at him, unimpressed by his exclamation, he silenced that train of thought and shuddered a bit, "It's just the blood!" He explained.

Unhelpfully. Only raising more questions than answers.

Quinn tapped her fingers together, taking a deep breath, before pointing her hands at him, as if to say, _'That tells me nothing.'_

Ace interrupted as he just flushed further at the action, thankfully getting directly to the point, "Blood?"

"Y-Yes!" He jumped on the chance to avoid Quinn- she felt reasonably offended at the sigh of relief that came from him- and snapped his fingers, pointing at Ace. "Exactly that! It's the whole problem-!" He chirped loudly, nervously. "Let me explain: Whenever blood hits the water he goes into a frenzy!"

"Frenzy?" Ace and Quinn asked in unison. Quinn had to pause though, brow crinkling, as she snapped her teeth around her already gnarled bottom lip and quietly asked, _"He?"_

"Yeah, who's _'he_ '?"

"A-Aah-" the boy paled drastically at the question, "You two should hurry and get out of here, a-a-a boat like this won't survive the waters once he comes!"

"Again." Quinn bit out impatiently at the urgency in the boys tone. "Who's _he_?"

"It's-"

He froze suddenly, mouth falling open, a shadow falling over his face. At it both Ace and Quinn went completely rigid. Because, from behind them, there came a frightening noise. It sounded as if mountains were crumbling and as if the ocean itself were screaming. But that wasn't all that it had in store -no- the next thing they knew a violent rain was drowning their clothes and pelting their heads. And worst of all was the shadow that loomed.

Slowly, mechanically, they turned around.

" _That_ …" the fishboy squeaked, "would be him."

"Oh."

"BRAWH _HHO **AHHHH** H_!"

…

…

The One Piece world, the Blue Seas, the Grandline, the Pirate King and all the rest brought to you by Eiichiro Oda, the author and imaginatively brilliant mind behind a series that flooded sales and fandoms. Quinn Varela, at the age of twenty, was not one for many series' but the manga had taken her prisoner for a short while in her teenage years and only recently had she had the mind to get back into it. The series was quick to take its place at the back of her head. Not really important, but an enjoyable hobby in itself. She would like to believe that she was rather well-read on the series as she always had a good memory and Oda was incredible at making his art pop and stick in people's minds. Sure, she probably couldn't recite anything line for line but she knew the general plot, points, characters and drives behind each story- as well as the logic behind the world and the fact that no matter how ridiculous and impossible abilities were they could always be explained within reason.

No matter how… stretched and skewed that reasoning was.

Still, basic world knowledge and opinions aside, Oda's art for all its detail, beauty, imagination, and skill really couldn't do the sheer unadulterated surrealness proper justice.

It just… It just really, really couldn't.

'Cause staring down the snout of a Sea King- no, a Sea Beast- was nothing but beautiful, realistic, awe-inspiring and terrifying on so, so many levels that it had her voice very much dying on the spot.

The face of the beast was a goat. Teeth that were sharpened like fangs despite their square shape. Lips that cracked and ridged with the amphibian scales and matted furs that mixed across its body, a coarse hair-like material that seemed closer to quills than anything. Its neck protruded out in odd shapes and curves; ears flicking away the water that poured from inside the gnarled mess that had taken over its ear canals; the long, thick, lithe body of a serpent.

 _Strength._

This beast was raw, powerful muscle.

That was the simplest explanation she could give but- oh god- the stench was… the stench was a…

 _A- A stench._

It was something else entirely.

There wasn't so much a smell to it as it was simply unbearable, raw, and so strong that her face stung and her eyes burned red with tears that simmered like boiling acid along her skin.

Dazedly, she swayed on her feet, "Oh… h-hullo."

Because really. What did you expect her to say? There was nothing that could be said to a face like that. And she was only hoping to make a good first impression.

"BROA _A_ -!"

She failed. Obviously.

"-AAAAAOOOO _OAAAAA_ AAH-"

Quinn felt like having an existential crisis. Eyes fixed shut, face scrunched, and hair being pushed back from the sheer ferocity and volume being screamed at her.

"-Ooooah _hahhhh_ h!"

Its rippling voice settled. And whatever terror and grandeur washed away in favor of being pissed. Quinn felt her eye twitch and wrinkled her nose, mouth already forming around the impulsive words. "Take a breath mint, geez."

She was not imagining the vein that looked ready to burst out of the creatures temple.

...At least she skipped straight over panic and went all the way over to sass.

 ** _Snap!_**

"SH _I_ -"

"You idiot, why would you pufurously- purposely antagonize him?!"

Quinn squeaked at the sight of teeth biting down on air, right where her head used to be.

That was a close one. If fish face hadn't reached up and grabbed the back of her jacket, subsequently slamming her into bottom of the boat, then Quinn would currently be missing her upper half.

"Oh, geez…" she mumbled, instantly regretting the moment of impulsivity. Especially in the face of danger. "This is nice. This is just perfect."

"Tch. He doesn't look that threatening." And there was the reminder that Ace was probably ten times worse than her. Quinn let out a breath through her nose. "I got this!"

"Not you too!"

"Wanna fight you ugly fish face?!"

"Are you both children?!" Fish-face seemed absolutely flabbergasted, especially seeing as he was the one pointing it out, as young as he clearly was. "Urgh. Whatever. I'm outta here." He made to leave but Quinn's hand came down, clasping him around his forearm, fist twisted it into unkind knots in the back of his tie-dye shirt. "What the-"

"This is your fault. You even said it!" She hisses. "Thanks for the save back there my fishy friend but you're not gonna just up and leave us here to deal with it." He stuttered and Quinn felt an unpleasant grin spread over her face. "Congrats! You get to see my insane Captain in action~!"

"Come at me, you Lord of the Coast wannabe!"

He squawked.

And then the monster of the sea surged down upon them.

"B _AOOO-!"_

-0-

He lifts himself out of the water, mouth falling open automatically and letting a waterfall of sand fall out. It ends with a pained cough and a small cloud of dust that flies back to get stuck in his eyes.

It's ignorable, but it still burns.

Adding onto the fact that it feels like something ripped through his throat, the salt water making him blink something fierce it was all and all not a great feeling. Near drowning was not fun. But, Ace guessed, that was the price you paid when you let the ocean throw you around however it wanted. " _Tch-_ "

His sweater and shorts were frayed at the edges, to put it lightly, like he'd come way too close to being completely shredded.

"Damn."

Ace shivered- oh. And he was sopping wet.

Cool.

He shook himself off like a wet dog, wiping his mouth off on his arm, to crawl out of the shallows still lapping at his feet. There was a moment taken to dig out a wad of sand from inside his shirt but Ace didn't want to get caught up on the uncomfortable details. "That was fun…!" He grunted, patting a hand over his chest.

Ow. That was gonna bruise.

Ace let out a relieved sigh when he found the strap of his bag, "Ack- thought I lost it there."

That would've been bad, he definitely didn't want to have to get all new things this soon. So, still stuck on his hands and knees, ripping one leg out from where it was buried in the sand, he reached back to put his hat on so he could block the sun out and-

 _"Damn_ it, Quinn

The realization came with a mix of frustration and a sudden hatred for the sun. "You still have my hat!" Ace gritted his teeth together. "Whatever. Not like I could wear it anyways with the hole it h _a-_ "

He grasped the length of the harpoon and ripped it out of the gloved hands that held it, eyes flashing dangerously.

There came a loud yelp as the person failed to let go and ended up headfirst in sand. Ace had the decency to wince as they struggled to yank their head out of the ground, legs and arms waving around wildly, though he made no move to help. Instead focusing a glare on the small group of pre-teens that had been behind the wielder, "Can I help you?" He more or less growled. Which sent them all scrambling back with a holler and a yell.

"Run for it!"

"This guys crazy!"

"Tava was right! He _is_ a sea monster!"

Okay, that last one had Ace tilting his head and sending them a confused look. It doesn't help any, the boys still run off, throwing down their weapons and leaving Ace and their friend behind. And Ace, so far, is not impressed.

But he still doesn't help.

"Hrrrghsh!"

Ace stands up and brushes the sand off his knees and front and wrings out his shirt, all the while he continues to stare at the struggling teen with probably more amusement than he should've. His head was… really deep in there. Way deeper than he initially thought.

Like really.

Ace crossed his arms and tapped a finger against his bicep impatiently.

Oh, shit, did he go still awhile ago or did that just happen?

He waited a few more seconds to confirm.

Yeah, no, he wasn't moving. "C'mon, man, don't die." Ace made a face, yanking him up by the ankle. "Woo- you don't look so good."

There was a dry cough.

He hung upside down limply, not even attempting to move.

"You… bast… tard…! I'll kill… ya for that…"

"Chehehe. You go ahead and just try and do that." Ace dropped him on his head. Crouching down to get a better look at him, "Hmm…"

He didn't look like anything special. Curly dark hair, tan skin, gloves, tank top and swim trunks. The only thing that really stood out was the fact that he had a scar across his mouth, like something had slashed him across the face.

"The hell are you lookin' at?" The guy snarled, scrambling to pick himself up. "You're just a sea freak, don't look at me like that."

Ace decided not to deign that with a reply.

Already turning on heel, stuffing his hands in his pockets, and walking off.

"Wha- O _-Oi-_!" He grabs his rusty harpoon and struggles after him, hand wiping sand off his face and out of his eyes. "Ptoo. Ack!"

There wasn't much to see of the island so far. It seemed to mostly be sand actually, with a few spots of grass and maybe even a rare tree here and there. Other than that it was all sandy hills and rolling waves of summer heat, not that he was complaining. But the long sleeves and collar were beginning to get a bit stuffy. Thankfully the sunburns weren't acting up, aside from a dull ache or itch, so he cursed Quinn's good idea and dealt with it by ducking under the shadier parts of the beach. He could spot a village up ahead.

"Where do you think you're going?!"

"To search." Is Ace's simple answer. It has the kid behind him flushing with anger and rushing to catch up with him. "What's it to you?"

"You're a stranger." He spits. "You're from the sea. And you managed to disarm me so easily- you've gotta be some sort of sea freak or something!"

"Or you're just insanely weak. Chehahaha!"

He sputters, "Jerk. What's a sea-freak like you searching for anyway? Can't be anything good. It's not seashells is it? Don't need another one of you collector-freaks." His eyes flash and Ace has to stop because he suddenly jumps in front of him, harpoon pointed at his throat. Ace gives him a bored look. "You so much as try anything and I'll- DONT WALK AWAY!"

This guy was annoying.

"You've got _some_ nerve."

Ace felt his eye twitch, brows furrowed tightly downward.

"Shouldn't you be in the sea anyways? And where are your gills? You should go hang out with the fishes, the lands got no space for yer kind." Huh. There was quite a few birds flying up from the other side of the island, he wondered what that was about. Maybe Quinn scared them off or something? "Hey, stop! I'm talkin' to you!"

Oh, really? Ace didn't care.

"Hey. HEY! Don't enter the village!"

He walks on. The village was quaint, each house spaced quite a bit ways apart, even though there were few, and seemed to be placed on solid concrete foundations, raised by brick and sandstone. Short fences made of red brick and stone marking off the streets and areas- the village tiny enough he could see where they petered off further down the road and into nothing.

There didn't seem to be anybody up and about.

"Hey-! Sea-Freak!"

But Ace wasn't stupid. It didn't take a genius to notice the shutters sliding shut or the doors closing before he'd even taken a step close to the village. Apparently the shouts from the guys friends were more than enough to have people clearing like cockroaches.

"Oi-!"

He re-shouldered his bag, 'hmph'ing.

Damn, this island was full of scaredy cats and pansies. Everybody had either run and hid or was bothering him something fierce. Speaking of which, the guy was stomping loudly up behind him, a feat in itself since the ground was still mostly sand, and muttering curses under his breath like no tomorrow. It was getting less and less tolerable.

"Seriously, what is your deal?" Ace can't help but ask, tone dripping with hostility.

It's not really a question that he expects to get answered, and he doesn't get one. But that's somehow even more frustrating.

"Don't just keep walking, you _ass_ -!"

Okay, that's enough of that.

Ace twists around before he can finish, "It's polite-" The kid flinches. The kid freakin' flinches and Ace barely keeps himself from either laughing or souring further. "It's polite," he repeats, more calmly this time, "To introduce yourself first before you talk to someone."

"I- what?"

When Ace bows it's to hide his scowl and the roll of his eyes, alongside an urge to just punch him- unfortunately the fight to just be polite and get this over with was much easier. If not as enticing. "Hello, my name is Portgas D. Ace, it's not nice to meet you." There's a strangled noise bubbling out of the guys throat, like he didn't expect it, and so when Ace lifts his head back up he has an intensely amused smirk on his face. Something that has the guy sputtering even worse and his smirk only growing. "And you are?" Ace drawls.

It's way too fun seeing him fail to speak.

"I- uh, I- wha-" But eventually he does end up getting there. "T-T-T-T-Tava?!"

"Alright, Tava." At least he can put a name to a face now. Even if he didn't really care to get to know him. In any way. "Please shut up and go away. I've got a hat to get, a crewmate to find, and a catfish to catch and you're not a part of that bundle."

Tava's mouth falls open, jaw opening and closing, failing to work properly. Eyes blown as wide as dinner plates and grip on his harpoon tightening- Ace tilts his head at the reaction. "Catfish?! Y-You d-don't mean-!"

Ace stopped at that. An eager grin splitting over his face.

"Yeah! You know who I'm talking about? Take me to him!"

"W-Wha-"

Tava looked distinctly taken aback. Then, he looked angry.

"Like hell I'd take you to that freak! I refuse!"

Ace gave him a flat look. This guy was… not very aware of himself, was he?

Tava flinched when Ace took a step towards him.

"It wasn't really a question."

…

…

Quinn took in a slow, dark, shuddery breath.

"What." She began, but had to stop herself short, arms held up in order to try and balance herself out. It wasn't working.

She coughed weakly, eyes wide, staring at nothing in particular- just focused ahead of her. Water spilled from her mouth and down her chin, mixing with spit and shaky gasps for air. She was bruised, battered, and dripping from head to toe. Whatever feeling that was slowly coming back to her limbs after her cold, struggling first descent of devil fruit-induced drowning was beginning to feel like electric-shock therapy. If the way she shook and shivered was anything to go by. Any motion she made hurt like a bitch and Quinn had more than half a mind to grab herself by the neck and bury her head back into the water until her body fell limp and fully numb to just end it all.

Everything was a mess. Yet that wasn't even the worst of it.

 _"The hell."_

"Welcome to my…" If there was a drum roll it would be playing right then and there. _"Dun-geon!_ "

The cavern filled with an uncomfortable silence.

"...My dungeon!" He repeated, sweat- or was that water?- running down the side of his face. The grin, showing off rows of teeth, wavered but stayed strong. "Dun~geon!"

She closed her eyes, mind whirring.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

"Ye _a_ h!" It came out a little too high pitched and forced. "I heard you the first time!"

And he pouted.

"Well why aren't you impressed?!" He stabbed a finger at her, brows furrowed and acting like _she_ had done something wrong. "This place is friggin' cool!"

Okay, she had to admit through her numbing daze, that some part of that statement was true. They were in a cavern, surrounded by high walls that dripped dark water and echoed at even the slightest sound. The ground slanting down, covered in rocks and pebbles, ferocious waves slamming into the shore and throwing around… _crap_. Quinn's mind supplied unhelpfully.

There was wood that looked like it had come from wreckage after wreckage, ripped sails, broken pieces, and piles of snapped wood thrown about, as if it'd all been left to rot year after year.

She wheezed. And decided to ignore the seawater that spilled all over her front.

"What're you…" he stomped his foot, "I know!"

"Know what."

"I didn't properly introduce myself! That's why you can't bask in my glory- stay right there! I'll be right back!"

"No, that's not necessary-"

He ignored her, "Stay!"

Quinn sagged further. Taking the moment to try and recollect herself and put her mind back on track, more than a little rattled, but now that warmth was beginning to flood back into her limbs she was doing a little better. Her skin still felt frozen and her hands shook beneath an unbearable weight that slowly slid away as water fell off, or dried off, or simply… went away but it was easier now.

Quinn squeezed her fists shut.

She took in another deep, pained breath in order to finally calm down.

"I am-"

Goddamnit.

"THE AMAZING KA- GYEH!?"

 _"Stop."_

Quinn snapped venomously, slapping a hand over the boys mouth. "As much as I'm thankful for the save from drowning…" Not an experience she'd like to have again anytime soon. "Please, just- be quiet." She rubbed her temples, hand falling away, head throbbing. "Damn… and Ace is gone too…"

Actually- no, that was her neck. Not her head. Damn it.

"Hey, can I at least get a thank you?"

Oh right he was still there.

Quinn tilted her head at him, "Didn't I already?"

Hmm, she chewed on her lip thoughtfully. Finally taking the sight of him in.

Now that they were out of the water and on equal footing she was able to actually get a good look at him. And it was certainly her first time seeing a fishman up close. And, wow, even half-human like he said, it was… weird to say the least.

Though, if she was being honest, it wasn't especially notable and he could probably pass as human if he really wanted to.

Overall, he was just a bit strange looking, and gave off the feeling that there was something… well, not quite strange, but simply put: different. And Quinn certainly had no qualms picking out those differences, blinking lazily.

Nails long and sharp.

A bit webbed if you looked at them in the correct light.

Gills apparent.

Skin textured differently. Almost reptilian.

But that wasn't really a good descriptor. Oh well.

His bright red hair and brown eyes were striking and sharp but not out of the ordinary for this worlds standards. It was just that- that the tye-dye muscle shirt with the word 'ALIENS' printed across the front and the dark brown pants leading down to tightly wound sandals was uh- well, it didn't make him stand out any less.

Oh and his teeth. A mix of human and shark. Those were actually rather eye catching.

"I mean, thanks." She shrugged.

It sounded poor to even her own ears.

He stared at her blankly.

"...Not accepted." He grumbled, crossing his arms. "That's such a lame way to express gratitude! I saved your life and then you ruined my introduction, damn it." He huffed, "I mean, who does that? It was gonna be really cool this time too!"

"Ugh- please shut up." Quinn whimpered, holding her neck. It throbbed painfully under her fingers. And massaging it felt much like massaging a porcupine: like it was a good idea but ultimately lead to pain if a single stroke was out of place; a double edged sword if you will. Quinn just groaned and picked herself back up.

"Don't you know any manners?"

"Shut up, Ace. You're not much better even if you try to be."

There was a long pause.

"Um- my name is Katsura, not… Ace."

Oh. Right.

"Same difference."

"We… we look nothing alike."

" _Same difference."_

"Oh-kay." He raised his hands up defensively. "But- uhm, its uh-"

Was he blushing?

Holy shit. He was being _shy_.

"Spit it out."

"Katsura! Please call me by my name!"

"Yeah, Kat, whatever."

He sputtered.

"No! I told you this already- cats are the-!"

"Yeah, I don't care Kat-shuri or whatever you said." She rubbed at her eyes. Purposely mucking up his name. "Where the hell am I?"

He deflated, nudging an empty can with his toe uselessly.

"Kat."

He just seemed to sag even more.

Quinn sighed, "Katsura."

And he perked up abruptly. "Yes, indeed, that is my name! Now if you would like to know where you are then all you had to do was ask-!"

There was a strangled choking noise. He bit his tongue.

"Damn it! OW!"

She hated him.

She freaking hated him.

"Okay, stop." Quinn raised up a hand, pinching the bridge of her nose and letting out a long suffering sigh. "Please. Just. Simple question: Where are we? Right now." It's a struggle to keep her head straight but Quinn finds that focusing on one particular string of thoughts comes easier the more she does it.

Katsura huffs noisily, "Well, we're in…" He hesitates and Quinn spots a faint blush peeking through his scaly cheeks, "It's kinda… my home, ya know?"

She has to stop and really just- just stare at Katsura. A bit in total incomprehension and a bit in vague understanding as she puts two-and-two together and really takes a look around the room. Before, in her dizzy vision, she hadn't seen, or at least hadn't made the connection, that along the innermost walls of the cavern there was a-

Well, makeshift and gaudy made it sound like it was decrepit but in all honest it was rather neat and well-made.

Quinn made a noise in the back of her throat, "Ah…" realizing exactly what she was looking at after another moment of struggle. Though, for an entirely different reason this time because it simply didn't look like how it should.

It was a bed. And a living area. A writing desk. Drawers. And, for all intents and purposes, it was a long stretch of a… _home_ , for lack of a better term. It looked more as if it had once been a rather sloppy piece of work but had been built on constantly over the years, thrown together with colorful parts, sewn together sails, and objects that were very obviously not supposed to be apart of something of its nature but had, oddly, worked well alongside all its other counterparts. And color Quinn impressed but there was even a canal-made of strips of board and bamboo running along the length of the ground and up like pipes on the wall, leading to a proper looking bathing area.

Then, she blinks, and feels a bit stupid. Because Katsura's living area was by no means the most impressive or the most obvious thing in the room. The fact that she only notices now is what has her feeling a little bit silly but that's quickly thrown away in favor of being, quite simply, confused.

"I- What's with all the shells?" She can't help but ask before her mind is done reeling from the sight.

"Oh. Uh- Those!"

"Yeah, those. They're… kinda hard to miss."

Katsura coughs into his fist, a bit embarrassed and shuffles his feet. "Well, shoot, it's uh-"

 _It's kinda personal_ , he's about to say, and it's on the tip of his tongue but he ends up stopping himself just short. Mostly because he's not really sure how to put it without inviting more questions that he doesn't want to go into too much detail about, so, he shifts and puffs out his cheeks. Trying to figure out the right words to say before pouting, fist hitting the palm of his hand, deciding to just get it over with.

"It's my collection!" He chirps with a wave of his arm, "I've been looking for this one super rare shell. These are just all the pretty ones that I've picked up over the years!"

"Nice collection."

It was certainly awe-inspiring, especially the amount of dedication he must've put into it to get the sheer amount of shells that piled the room. They were seperated by color and by kind from the looks of it, a rainbow of beautiful shades that sparkled like gold and treasure on the floor. She gives up on counting before she even begins.

"What kind of shell have you been looking for, exactly?" Quinn asks, carefully picking her way over a few smaller piles in order to not crush anything. They look way too delicate to just be left lying in stacks about the place. "It must be something special."

"Oh most definitely!" Katsura covered his face, squealing giddily. "I just can't wait to find it! I lost it a few years ago but I know I'm hot on it's trail! I could find it any day now- you know?!"

Quinn nodded wearily, swept off her feet a bit.

"It's this really pretty conch shell-" Katsura continued, skipping along next to her. Quinn tried not to flinch at his closeness, roaming around for an exit of any kind. "-but it's got this purple spiral runnin' all over it, with some yellow specks! You haven't seen anything like it have you?"

"No, sorry…" She bit her lip, ignoring the burning sting it caused. "Uh- and this home of yours…"

"Hm?"

"Where, exactly, _is_ it?" She groused.

"Beneath the island of course!"

Of course, of course. She should've just assumed.

Quinn hung her head, "I take it that's why you introduced it as your dungeon, huh?"

"More or less!" Katsura chirped. He then pouted, kicking his feet. "But you were supposed to freak out… that's how they always do in the books. I wanted to scare youuu..."

"I don't think that's an image you should cultivate." She can't help but deadpan, eyeing him up. Chubby face, nose looking like it'd been busted a few times, and while incredibly muscular, still a gangly and awkward teen. "...I don't think you have the face for it."

"Oh."

She squinted at him, "Mn. You- You look kinda lame honestly."

"...Oh

"Especially since your teeth are mixed."

" _Oy._ I get it."

"Whiskers."

"Hey!"

"...And the spiky red hair."

"I- what's wrong with my hair?" He brought a hand up to his head, petting his hair softly and looking vaguely hurt. "No- Wait, I… what?"

Quinn eyed him.

Then, she's placing her head in her hands and offers a weak sort of apology. "Sorry, sorry, my heads not on right." And muttering something awful under her breath, trying to reorganize and get a handle on the things running through her head. "Can't think straight… but… since we're beneath the island and in a cave, sorry, your _home_ … am I correct in assuming that there's not a normal exit?"

It's not a clarification that she particularly needs but as he nods and she accepts the answer, savors it a bit, she's almost afraid to ask.

Swallowing.

"And... how do you get to the surface then?"

Katsura gives her a blinding grin, all mismatched teeth and dimples.

"Why, by using the currents, of course!"


	6. Belle II

**Hi guys! It's been awhile since I last updated- sorry about that I just kept having stuff pop up at the worst of times and trying to deal with that and writing something good at the same time was not working out. That said, I've updated each chapter and you do not need to go back and reread them at all. They haven't changed much in terms of content- except chapter 4 but that's mostly characterization- I just rewrote it because I wasn't happy with it. I just wanted to make them flow better and I wanted to fix mistakes I made in starting this story. While I'm sure that there are still some grammatical errors here and there, please point out anything and I'll get back to it as soon as I can, I like what I've gotten.**

 **I've changed my name from Vixbee to poprockie in case anybody was wondering. I also updated the stories summary because I never really liked the old one all that much. This new one has grown on me a bit.** **To new readers: you probably don't know what I'm talking about. Which is great for me. But I wasn't happy with earlier versions of this story and have rewritten these first five chapters about three times now. Yes, it was that bad. And it took me over a year to do so. I hope I never have to take an extended hiatus like that again because I've really grown to love writing this story and can't wait to finally continue it. Reviews are especially helpful in reminding me to write by the way! Sometimes I just forget and they help me get motivated but I always love hearing what people have to say.**

 **Oh! And before I move onto the chapter- this story was created before any information was out on the Spade Pirates but the originals do exist in this universe (my extended hiatus has allowed me to read up on things). Masked Deuce, Isuka and everybody else. I would think of it like this: because of Quinn and other factors Ace ended up taking a different route than his counterpart and wound up in Saigen instead of anywhere else. This is due to him not getting his hands on a map to Sixis and instead overhearing about Saigen, a trading port sanctioned by the Marines, and getting his hands on an old map to Gaimon's island. And then the story changed from there. Seeing as the original Spade Pirates do exist we might just be seeing them in the future- though I can't say for certain whether or not they'll be allies.**

 **Anyways, without further ado, here we go:**

It was sudden and shocking.

Even though she'd expected it, knew that it was coming, it still didn't prepare her for the sheer… _experience_ that hitting the water would be. 'Cause it was hard to describe, really. And left her a bit at a loss for words.

When the Beast had lunged at them it had immediately shattered the boat into pieces and the only reason Quinn was still alive was because she'd managed to fall back before it'd hit her head on. That still didn't help her from being thrown into the water, back first, and certainly didn't stop the wind from getting completely knocked out of her. Yeah, going for a breath after a hit like that, only to be met by a lungful of water, was more than a little disorienting. To make matters worse, the Devil Fruit had hit like a freight train- and she was stuck under the tracks.

Quinn nearly snorted. And that was putting it _lightly._

See, a Devil Fruit user doesn't _just_ lose their ability to swim and suffer from a weakened state, no, it was far, far worse than that. It was as if the entire ocean was holding you down and grabbing you, like it was dragging you down to the sea floor as fast as it possibly could, trying to bury you deep, deep down into its abyss. It weighed on your limbs, unimaginably heavy and strong, and only got worse the further you got from the surface. And _that_ had been terror inducing.

Quinn had choked, vision blurring, and could only watch as the sunlight got dimmer and dimmer, the surface further and further out of reach with each passing second. And even though she tried, and managed to force her arms to move in a few weak strokes, it did nothing against the pull of the sea. Then her back had hit the floor, sending up sand and dirt to cloud her vision and ruin her view of the sunlight and the surface.

And that had sent a whole new wave of panic through her- just the feeling of being absolutely powerless to forces completely out of her control. It wasn't a new feeling, but it'd been so in her face and sudden and nauseating; dialed to eleven, that she'd nearly passed out right then and there.

Really, staring up at the bubbles drifting past her fingers, the horror of losing oxygen, her lungs constricting and throat tightening, and vision darkening with each moment safety got further out of reach was-

Abruptly Quinn shook her head, biting down on her lip to pull herself out of those thoughts.

It wouldn't do to get caught up in that experience any longer. It was horrible, that was that, and she'd rather not remember it any longer than she had to- "What're you doing?"

She asks. Thoughts stalling.

She has to wince at the sound of her voice. Scratchy. And ripping through her throat like knives.

Katsura nearly tripped over himself in surprise.

"Ah-!" He managed to catch himself, nails digging into the rock wall to hold himself up. "You scared me!" Katsura yelps, one hand on his heart, eyes flung wide.

He was at the corner of the shore, crouched over the water.

" _I_ scared _you?_!"

"W-Wha-" His mouth falls open, as if catching what he'd said, "I-I-I mean, I wasn't scared at all! Just… surprised! Yeah, surprised, is all." Katsura coughs into a fist awkwardly before clapping and pointing at the water. Quinn followed his finger. "I was just checking out the sea currents before we head up!"

"The… sea currents?" She tries to keep the confusion out of her tone but fails. Instead brows furrowing curiously at him. "You can feel them?"

"Yeah," he chirps, "The Beast, when he gets into a real bad mood, ends up thrashing around in the water so much that he makes it go crazy. He's strong enough that they go absolutely wild and- yeesh- if that happened while your friend was in the water…!"

Katsura made a face and slid a thumb over his throat, miming a choked noise in a pale imitation of someone losing their head.

"Wow. Thanks. I really needed to hear that right now." Quinn can't help but deadpan.

It's only mildly entertaining watching him suddenly turn pale and choke for real this time. Looking absolutely horrified. Before he slaps a hand over his mouth, "Oh my- I'M SO SORRY! J-Just ignore what I said!" He garbles. "That's only if the currents were bad a-and it doesn't look like they were too horrible, honest! They were actually surprisingly calm this time so your friend should be just fine!"

It's comical to watch him wave his hands around and bounce from foot to foot and Quinn almost cracks a smile before she's crossing her arms and raising a brow at him. "And you can read them just like that?" It's said with an alarmed sort of disbelief and Katsura looks taken aback. Even a bit offended maybe?

"Of course I can!" He snaps. And Quinn blinks. That was a quick change of tone. "I've been reading the ocean and the weather for as long as I can remember, there's no one that can read and predict the ocean better than I can! And you can take that to your grave, you know?!" He's practically shouting at this point, and burning with a sort of passion that has her more than a little startled.

She can't help but slowly tilt her head at him, face scrunched. "Oh-kay?"

There's a moment of silence.

Then he squeaks.

"THAT CAME OUT WRONG- GSHHK!" And bites his tongue.

Quinn's more than a little weirded out.

"Uh- You okay there?"

"Grhshhh… Ish fine…!" He buries his face into his palm and shoots her a shaky thumbs up. "Ish all good- keh- gyeh- _ow_." From the blood dripping down his face it's clearly _not fine_ and _not all good_ but Quinn isn't really sure what to do. So she just shifts uncomfortably, more than a little befuddled.

Just- who kept _doing_ that?

Katsura sucks in a whimpered breath, a little teary eyed, to continue on like nothing happened, "But it's a bit strange is all."

"What is?"

The fact that he kept biting himself? Because Quinn definitely thought that was more than a little bit strange and it was even more sad if this was the first time he'd actually realized that normal people don't regularly try to bite through their own damn tongue.

"Well, normally, after the Beast attacks a ship, the waters way worse than this." He coughs up a bit of water, letting it fall through his fingers, "This is pretty normal for this area."

Oh, so not the tongue thing then.

Quinn was… admittedly a bit disappointed.

She shrugs at him, "So what? What's the big deal if he isn't throwing a hissy fit in the water for once?" It'd be wonderful if she never saw that things ugly mug again. "Isn't it better for us getting to the surface if he isn't causing us trouble?"

"Well, yes." Katsura admits before paling dramatically, biting his nails. "It's just creepy is all! Like- like- Have you ever heard a _real_ scary ghost story? The waters givin' me that kind of feeling you know?"

"I think you mean goosebumps."

"Right, that!"

"How do you not know what goosebumps are-?"

"I just forgot the word! People do that sometimes!" He garbled out, cheeks flushed bright, which he tried desperately to hide. He failed by the way. "It's- It's not that weird! I- Just let me check out the water a bit more to make doubly sure it's safe, okay?!" Quinn opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by him- "Okay! I just need to make sure that everything's really, _really_ alright. Gotta feel it now-"

She pursed her lips, more than a little bemused.

"-so-so no interrupting!"

She raised her hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, I got it." And decided to just settle back and watch the redhead at work. She wasn't completely buying the fact that he could "apparently" read the ocean currents and gauge the general going-ons of the sea but Quinn had a feeling that the more she didn't believe what she was told the more she'd just be proven wrong in the end. There were certainly crazier- and freakier- things in the Blues' World.

For all she knew _all_ fishman could read currents.

She didn't really remember a lot on them.

(She'd kinda… skimmed the Fishman Island Arc. She was only semi-regretful.)

Katsura sucked in a deep breath.

Feeling the water flow between his fingers, over the webbing on his hands, and the amphibian skin that made up the lower parts of his arms in thick, tough layers, letting his skin breath in the familiar comfort of the water. Truthfully, feeling the currents was a bit of a redundant statement. It was more as if he was… sensing them, so to speak. Understanding them. Listening to them. Each coil or twist or lap that ran over his forearms was just an echo of the currents, telling him what he needed to figure out their rhythm.

A beat.

He let out a slow, deliberate breath through his gills.

Normally, after the Beast was upsetted, the currents would be so loud and constant he could only stand to be in the water for a few minutes at most. It was just overloading to his senses. But this time there wasn't any of that- and, like he said, it gave him goosebumps. Quite literally. He could feel his hair standing on end as they popped up all over his skin.

The sea was shockingly calm. Rolling, twisting and churning how it normally did. Which was admittedly not that calm, but calm enough to warrant him trying to sniff out any problems.

Another beat.

He let his gills tense and shudder before pulling his hands out and rubbing a handful of water over them, letting them settle back into his skin. "Krrm… It seems like it's all okay. As far as I can tell we're all good to go!" He huffed. "So I guess we can-"

There was a loud, creaking noise. Sounding like ropes snapping and old wood groaning; the wooden remains on the shoreline tumbling tumultuously over each other. Quinn winced as a crash rung out, something slamming into the rest of the rubbage, and peaked over the broken mass curiously.

Katsura let out a loud yelp and a curse, wiping his hands off on his shirt. "GAH- Goddamnit, that makes me jump every time!" He grumbled, face beet red.

Quinn couldn't help but quirk a brow. "Well, that's foreboding."

Caught in the water and slamming into the rest of the wreckage was the bits and pieces of what could only by Ace and hers ship. Completely and utterly destroyed beyond repair.

Katsura followed her gaze and couldn't help but cringe, coughing into his fist awkwardly.

"A-Ah-" His mouth fell open and he turned a bit red in the face, sheepish, "I-I guess I forgot to mention that most of the surface currents pick up all the wreckage and end up bringing it over here. That's why I've got all these shipwrecks on my doorstep."

"Figured it was something like that…"

There was a crash, shipwrecked parts slamming into each other and collapsing against the new weight.

And then it all continued to crash.

...And snap.

...And break.

Every which way.

Katsura cringed at each new noise, a strangled noise coming from his throat. Quinn couldn't help but sigh, rubbing her temples. "Alright, as fun as… this is, let's get this over with."

It was said with a sort of pained trepidation, knowing that she was not going to like what they did next.

And, god, was she right.

In order to leave the cave they had to, just as Katsura had said, use the currents. If that in itself wasn't foreboding to a newly-minted Devil Fruit user than she didn't know what was. Because being an anchor meant she couldn't take more than a few inches of sea before she became as limp as a noodle.

So, Katsura grunted, "Okay, I got this!" And waded into the water. Quinn held in his arms bridal style.

And she was. Not. Happy.

Now she didn't know exactly where this was going but why'd it have to come to this- of all things? She grimaced pathetically, gripping the red head as she struggled to get away from the weakness of the water. Shit. It was already lapping at her ankles and she could feel her breath come out in short, harsh beats with every step Katsura took. "I hope this works…" She heard him mutter and whipped around.

"W-What do you mean, _I hope_?!"

"A-Ah- n-nothing! I've just never done this with another person!"

"What?!"

"Hey, it's your fault you can't swim! You should really learn!"

"Me learning is not the problem-!"

She struggled even more.

Katsura flashed her a quick grin, a bit strained, but cheeky enough to have her cursing him out, "Hold your breath!"

The water washed over them.

And Katsura nearly let out a whoop of relief.

Whoosh~ He just loved dipping into the water and feeling it rush over his gills. Each breath pumping in water to his fishman lungs, absolutely refreshing to his-

His-

His-

" _Uh, oh."_

He squeaked.

" _You're not supposed to be here."_

He said. To the gnarled face of the Sea Beast.

...

...

"Woooo~"

Ace let out a low hum of appreciation, taking in the sights from his spot. Currently situated on what was easily the highest point in the village. "This is a pretty nice place you got here!" He complimented.

It didn't beat the view from his treehouses crow's nest but it was definitely up there.

There came a choked sputter.

"I k-kno-o-ow-" Tava gasped, "Lemme' go you- you bastarr-!" Oh, will you look at that? He couldn't finish his sentence. How sad. Ace grinned, squeezing tighter.

"Is that what you want?" He asked. Changing his grip on him from where he had him wrung out by his neck, caught in a headlock, and couldn't help but smirk as Tava clapped a hand against his arm. Trying to tap out from the looks of it. "You _sure_ about that?"

The answer was mostly just him choking but Ace took it as confirmation and shrugged.

"Alright. You asked for it!"

What?

He was a bit vindictive.

"Oh, thank g _o- A_ -AAAH- N-NO- NO!"

Ace snorted back a laugh, catching the guy by the back of his shirt before he could drop more than a few feet. Just enough to scare him really, and give him that satisfying feeling of dropping in the pit of his stomach. "Sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you!" He snickered.

"Oh- man- Augh… Y-You bastard-"

His grip slipped a bit.

" _AH NO, I'M SORRY- SORRY- P-Please,_ don't!"

Ace hummed. "I don't know." He grinned, lifting him up so he could see his face. He was a bit green. "You've been kind of an asshole up until this point."

" _I… think I'm gonna throw up…!"_

That's not something he wanted to hear. "Don't look at me when you do it." He sweat drops. There was a chance that, maybe, he'd gone a bit too far. Then the guy called him an asshole again and that thought immediately went away.

"How about you show me where that Catfish guy is at now?"

He groans a bit more and his face flashes through a few shades of color that Ace doesn't know how to describe. _Not good_ , he settled on as it turned a sort of ashen yellow- which, coupled with his skin tone, made him look like he was dying. "C-Can I just…" He sounds queasy. "Ask one question?"

"You're not really in a position to be." But Ace shrugs, "Sure, whatever. Can't promise I'll answer."

He blushes a bit, head down. "...Was I really _that_ weak?"

That was an easy one. Ace snorted. "Oh, absolutely."

Oh, hell, was he going to cry? Ace didn't know whether to laugh or shake his head, this guy was just ridiculous. Tava hung his head, eyes downcast, and swallowed pathetically, before saying in a small voice, "F-Fine… I'll take you over to the d-damn fish freaks lair." A grin splits over his face.

"That's all I wanted to hear!"

Tava's expression gets screwed up, looking all bent out of shape. And growls. "Just get me down from here already! This is way too high up, damn it!"

He's waiting for his feet to be placed on the roof so he can climb down or for Ace to begin slowly making his way down himself so that they can take a nice and steady trip back down to the ground.

Unfortunately, that's not what happens.

"-AAA _AA_ AA-"

"Chehahaha-!"

" _-OH MY_ GOD-!"

Ace jumps off and lets gravity take its course.

...

...

" _What the hell- you jerk! Go away!"_

Katsura snapped at the fishy-face of the Sea Beast.

" _Were you waiting for us to leave this whole time?! That's… actually kinda smart. What gave you the idea to do that?"_

He has to somersault out of the way of jaws slamming down inches from his face.

" _Damn it, Beast, you put me in such a tight spot here!"_

Quite literally. His back was shoved up to the shore wall and his hands were tied with Quinn in his arms. Katsura huffed, shooting off the wall just in time to dodge another strike. The Beasts jaws clamping down on nothing but water and making the currents ripple beneath its weight. Katsura cursed.

And cursed again when he looked down and caught sight of the bubbles beginning to force their way out of Quinn's mouth. From the scrunch of her face and her eyes turning dazed it was clearly taking all she could to keep her hold on his shirt. Which he could uncomfortably feel loosening.

The goal of jumping in the water- or rather, the entire purpose, was to grab a current that he could use to twist himself up onto the land about fifty feet above them. And the problem with the beast showing his ugly mug was that he was able to disturb the currents with just a twist of his body and a snap of his jaws. In fact, just as Katsura was about to use the ocean and get out the waves changed abruptly and ruined his hold on the water around him.

Effectively cutting off his exit.

" _Just great-!"_

The dodging was getting ridiculous. Katsura grimaced as the seconds ticked by.

At this rate, he'd never get out.

The Beast thrashed around, roaring, and the waves changed abruptly around them. It snapped out, " _Ah,_ fu- and the only reason he'd managed to get out of the way with Quinn in his arms was backflipping awkwardly and using the currents to siphon himself a few feet away. The sound of the wall crumbling behind him was somewhat muffled by the water, wood and rocks tumbling into the ocean and slowly sinking past him.

" _HEY! Don't do that, you're gonna mess up my shell collection!"_ He couldn't help but snarl for once careful not to bite his tongue. More blood in the water would only serve to make getting out of here harder. And all this rumbling would cause his shell-piles to fall and break. " _That took years to put together and organize_!"

Okay.

He was fed up.

" _Sorry, Quinn, you're gonna have to hang out by yourself for a minute!"_

He imagined that if she wasn't only semi-conscious that her eyes would've snapped open and she would've let out an underwater scream. As it was, all she could manage was the distinct feeling that she should be pissed off- especially as she found herself without anything to hold onto, suspended and sinking a short second later. She knew she shouldn't have trusted him to hold onto her.

" _C'mon Beast! Let's fight!"_

" _Brr_ ** _rghhh_** _hhh-"_ Said Beast was growling like a wild dog, lips pulled back in something vaguely looking like a sneer. "- ** _r_** _roooooa_ ** _aag_** _h_!"

He twitched a bit nervously.

Truth be told, the last time he'd gone head-to-head with the Beast it hadn't ended well for either of them. But, " _Yeah, yeah,"_ he stuck his tongue out _, "just come at me already, you jerk!"_

Katsura couldn't help but grin a bit. Giddy, almost.

If… If he could beat the Beast once and for all then that'd prove that he'd gotten stronger since then.

The thought had his heart skipping a beat, though he couldn't tell if that was the result of a good feeling or not. Finding himself surging across the length of the monstrous body, hands at the ready, slipping around the violent jaws with ease now that he could move freely. " _Alright, I've got this…!"_ He muttered, barely able to contain himself. Rearing back his hand, in order to feel the water stretch across his fingers in long, sharp tendrils. It was a familiar feeling.

One that was followed by the currents around him shifting. In some small way it was akin to the movement of the Beast, but required much more finesse and concentration. Not wild movements that sent the waves crashing. Rather, focus and thought.

Katsura took in a deep breath. The build up of water around his fingers felt like it was going to explode, barely contained concentrations of sea. It was always hard fighting unassisted like this- he was unused to the strain- and he could feel his focus beginning to fade with each passing second.

His muscles groaned beneath the recognizable weight of using the ocean to do his bidding and couldn't help but smirk, " _You're going down, Beast!"_ Slashing across the back of the Beasts hide with all the strength he could manage.

There were long lines of spume blocking his vision but he'd definitely felt the strike connect and he couldn't help but let an excited feeling of triumph race through him. Blinking wildly as the bubbles popped and disappeared, tense as he waited for the Beast to twitch or make so much as a single move.

" _That's right! Take that, you be- GAH!"_

Was… Was that his _tail…_?

" _SNNNK-_ Keh _sh- sh- shit-_ fu _h-"_ Katsura grasped his face and held back a howl, blood spraying into the water. "Shda-damn it!" That was…

Ugh. He was sent absolutely reeling from that hit. It'd whipped out too fast for him to even attempt to dodge.

Spitting and sputtering as blood spurted from his busted nose, out into the water, Katsura let out a weak cough at the sudden, shocking impact.

Ah.

That was not good.

" _Aw, shit."_

Katsura ran his tongue across his teeth anxiously, both the sharp and the not, careful to not let it get cut despite his sudden paleness. Attention suddenly taken in by the fact that the hit- " _did absolutely nothing!_ "

There wasn't so much as a scratch on him. The Beast hadn't even flinched. Damn. Unfortunately, from the looks of it, he wasn't the only one who'd gotten stronger.

He wiped the blood away with the back of his arm. Spitting out a glob into the water.

The Beast seemed to breath in the smell with a sort of zealous satisfaction. And if Katsura didn't know any better than he'd say that he was smiling.

That thought was not a fun one.

" _Alright, Beast, it's going to be like that then."_ He spits. More than a little chagrined and meets the snarl of the beast with bared teeth and a growl. The Beast's eyes are bloodshot now, and he looks even more ferocious than he did before. Katsura holds back a shiver at the sight. The blood in the water was going to send him into an even worse frenzy if he wasn't careful.

A few stray bubbles popped in front of his face.

He looked down.

And flushed guiltily. " _...right! I almost forgot! Sorry!"_ He squeaked.

It probably wouldn't do to end up accidentally drowning the person he was supposed to be helping. From the blue tinge on Quinn's face and the fact that bubbles were escaping her shut mouth at a horrifying rate the clock was ticking by faster than he'd anticipated.

" _I-I-I'm coming, don't worry!"_

Unfortunately the Beast chose that time to be an ass.

"ROA-"

" _Ahgh!"_ He sputtered. " _Striking while I'm distracted!"_

" _-OO_ OA **G** ** _H_**

He clenched his teeth, eyeing the lanky body beneath him, glancing between the Beast and where Quinn rested between coral and rocks close to the ocean floor. The Beast wasn't going to just let him pick her back up and with his failure to pierce the Beasts hide- he looked down at his nails, long and sharp, and usually all he needed to break through rock and skin and whatever he wanted- well, he just wasn't going to cut it. The thought had him grinded his teeth against each other, shaking his head in frustration.

Fine. _Fine._

He was just too weak.

It came with a flurry of feelings, mixed rage and self-hatred and disappointment.

" _Next time, Beast,"_ he snarled, " _I'll be strong enough to take you down myself!"_ With that exclamation he was glancing back at the rock wall still behind him and purposely snapping his teeth around his tongue. " _For now- have a taste of what's to come!_ "

And slammed his teeth down as hard as he could.

" _GYAH! THAT ALWAYS HURTS!"_

But it was as if a switch had been flipped.

" _Br_ r _ooooo_ ** _oooa_** _ggg_ g _gh!"_

The Beast's eyes turned red in a haze of ferocity, roar escaping, and lunged.

Headfirst into the wall behind him.

Still teary eyed from the bite to his tongue Katsura cackled uproariously at the sight, " _GET WRECKED ASSHOLE!"_ He sank into laughter, smirking and cheering at the sight of both the integrity of the Beasts skull and the rock wall failing. That'd surely knock him out of the running for a little while. He swooped down and gathered up Quinn in his arms, latching onto what currents he could with a spin of his body, a sheepish apology on his lips.

At least he'd managed to do something, Katsura thought- That is until Quinn's eyes widened and she struggled to point over his shoulder. He whipped around, mouth falling open, " _What the_ hell?!"

Despite the blood smashed and smeared across his skull the Beast was sliding off the wall and bearing down on them once again.

"Shi-!"

The only reason they were able to successfully shoot pass his gaping maw and razor-like teeth was because Katsura had already gathered the currents around the pair and was already in the midst of sending them flying out of the ocean and straight up into the sky, landing in a crash of limbs and pain on the cliffs edge. The touchdown sending the two sprawling apart from each other in a wet mess of rolling bodies with only Katsura managing to pull himself into a crouch.

" _Damn_ it," he snarled, slamming his fist into the ground, "I couldn't do anything to him!"

Quinn came up gasping for air and vomiting up water and bile.

Barely able to lift herself onto her hands and knees, heaving until she was convulsing and cramping and wanting nothing more than to collapse in on herself. "Nice… going, Kat." She growled. "Way to… forget about me…" Christ. Every breath she took in came out harsh and ragged, her voice garbled to the point of near incomprehension.

"It's Katsura." He muttered, annoyed. Sniffing back some drops of blood. "I already told you that-"

"Don't care." Quinn huffed, voice coming out in gasping breaths. "Gonna try and kill me like that… I'll call you whatever the hell I want…"

"I can kick you off the cliff, you know?"

"You won't." It may just be the water suffocating her brain but Quinn was pretty sure she could trust the fish-face. "You already saved me. Wouldn't be worth all the work you already put in."

"Grrr…"

"Why do you hate, hrrk… Kat anyways? It's cute."

He ducked his head, face contorting painfully. "It's weak is what it is." He wasn't kidding when he likened it to being the weak-link of the animal kingdom. "I'm a man… I'm not some soft hearted weakling."

Quinn snorted. Which was a bad idea since it caused some excess water to get stuck up her nose. "Uhg! O-Oh please. That's so stupid." She rolled her eyes. "Sounds to me like you're just being dramatic."

"Shut up." He growls, punching her in the shoulder. Though there's no real heat to it. "You don't know what it means to me. Being called Kitty all the time… It's worse than being called a fish-freak or a monster. Whatever the islanders are coming up with these days."

Given that they're both stuck on the ground, trying to catch their breath, neither of them can see each others reactions. Quinn in too much pain to really acknowledge him, diaphragm constricting. Katsura's teeth are slowly clenching and unclenching, marks of pain and anger crossing over his face.

Quinn sucked in a few breaths, dry heaving and coughing out a bit more water, and finally asked the question that she knew she'd have to ask in order for them to get anywhere else, "Why's it have such a negative connotation, huh?"

He sat back up, hand wiping across his cheek and neck. Looking decidedly defeated. "My gills… they look like whiskers don't they?"

"Yeah. Makes you sorta look like Naruto actually."

"You mean like the food?"

"Uh- no. Ignore me."

He shook his head, eyes downcast. "When I was younger and new to this island all I wanted to do was fit in." He grimaced at the memory. Yeah right. Like that could've ever happened here. "But…"

"Well, let's just say it didn't end well."

He closed his eyes.

 _"-It's all your fault- you weakling!-"_

 _"-You can't protect anything, kitty-cat!-"_

 _"-Shut up! No one wants to hear your self-pitying moans!-"_

 _"-Aww- the kit's crying! Haha-"_

 _"-oh that? I tossed it. A dumb cat like you shouldn't be allowed to have anything that pretty-"_

His eyes shot open abruptly. "I can't change what my gills look like- what _I_ look like like. I was born this way!" He spat. "I won't be some weak-willed, demure little _kitty_. The appearance does not make the man!"

He froze, unclenching his hand, letting it fall limply into his lap. "Guess I'm wrong though… couldn't so much as scratch the Beast. All I did was take hits and talk shit. I'd need help if I ever even wanted to break his hide."

Quinn grunted. "What's wrong with that? There's nothing wrong with asking for help, doesn't mean you're weak." She groaned. "I asked for help after all- what would that make me?"

Katsura pursed his lips. "You can't even swim. Being compared to you is not exactly… filling me with confidence here." As soon as the words got past his lips he was burning a furious red and he looked wide eyed, slapping his hands over his mouth.

"Oh. Ouch. I'm gonna pretend I didn't just hear you say that."

" _Please_!" He almost whimpered.

"Anyways…" Quinn hissed as she stood up, feeling her body crack and groan in all the wrong places. "It's just a word. Take it back."

"Huh?"

"It happens sometimes with words with negative connotations."

Ugh. She felt her stomach roll.

"I don't-"

"Make it your own. Or whatever," she rubbed at her face, "I'm gonna go throw up. Again." She stumbled over to a bush and did just that.

It had Katsura blinking at her back, mouth falling open.

"I- I… I never thought of it that way." He smiled to himself a bit. It was a nice thought. "You know, you're pretty ni- GROSS!" He pinched his nose and grimaced, finally taking notice of what she was doing.

Quinn wiped a hand over her face. She did not feel good. "Thanks. I needed to hear that right now."

He slapped his hands back over his mouth, "S-S-Sorry!"

She paused, giving him a dry look. "I'm joking."

"I-I knew that."

"...sure."

Oofph. She's gonna throw up again.

Katsura yelps.

-0-

"Are you better now? Please tell me you're better."

It feels like she's gone ten rounds with a blender but she nods slowly. Katsura let's out a sigh of relief, hand on his heart. Quinn interrupts it.

"This is your fault."

"What? No. It's the Beasts!" He stabs a finger at the cliffs edge, looking affronted by the accusation. "I'm the one that got you out of there in the first place."

Quinn grumbles, shooting him an aggravated look from the corner of her eye. She'll begrudgingly give him that. "...Still dropped me."

"That- That was necessary to the situation at hand!" He defended. "It's not like I was gonna just leave you there-!"

She huffed out a reluctant laugh. "Kehehehe!" Patting him on the shoulder, "I know. I know. I'm just giving you a hard time, don't overreact. Geez."

He flushes. "That's not-" His face flattens, expression dry. "You were nice before, now you're just mean." It's said in annoyance but Quinn could swear she saw the corner of his mouth quirk up a bit. She takes that as a win. Though a win for what? She's not sure.

"If nothing else you have a potential career in waterboarding."

"Uhhh-"

He chokes on his own spit at that. Incredulous. She's just thankful that he didn't end up biting his tongue again.

Quinn cracks her neck. It feels like its been weeks since she last saw Ace but in reality it'd probably been- and she was already pushing it with this guess- half an hour. Dimly she wonders if this whole situation is different than what would have happened if she wasn't present before shaking her head, deciding not to think about it. "So where would he be?"

"Who?"

"Ace."

"Oh. Freckles. Right." Katsura taps a finger to his chin thoughtfully. "Well- There's a village on the other side of the island. The current that swept him up should've taken him somewhere over there."

She fails to hide her groan. Erk- walking. It didn't sound fun after feeling like she'd been run over by a train multiple times. "We'd better get going then-" Quinn stops, blinking against the glare of the sun. "Hey, is that a house over there?"

Katsura's head pops up.

"Huh?"

"Over there." He follows her finger and takes in the sight of the... Quinn wanted to call it a cottage. Katsura takes one look at it and almost immediately flinches. It's gone with a blink and she's left wondering if it was just a trick of the light.

"Oh- uh." He pales, tongue feeling heavy in his mouth. "That's just some old abandoned home. Nobody's lived there in four years."

"Ace could be there." Quinn suggests and starts making her way towards it.

Katsura gapes at her.

"H-Hey, wait!"

"What?"

"We can just skip over it and head straight over to t-the- KSHHH!" He howls as his teeth clamp down around his tongue. He curses at the familiar iron taste of blood feeling his mouth, teeth scraping along old and new scars alike. He whimpers. What horrible timing!

Quinn raises an unimpressed brow before rolling her eyes and continuing walking towards the cottage.

Katsura quickly stumbling after her, jaw working to try and swallow back the pain, and he stutters as he speaks up, hands waving frantically. "I promise the village isn't a far walk! Hey, hey, you're looking tired, maybe I can carry you back?" She actually pauses and has to consider that one. Then she glances down, noting that he barely reached her chin and decides against it.

"No. You're... too short."

"-Wha? I carried you just fine before!"

"That was out of necessity. With our height difference it'd just be comical."

He splutters.

"Why're you trying to keep me from heading over there?"

Really. He's floundering by every definition of the word and Quinn doesn't have to know what's going through his head to figure out that he's trying to come up with some sort of explanation. An explanation that would most definitely be a lie if he could manage it. Just to try and get her to stop and head towards the village- which she was somewhat inclined to do but ultimately decided against it. But Quinn's a curious sort and with each second that he fails to come up with something she inches closer and closer in the direction of the cottage.

He clamps his mouth shut. And if Quinn took a second to glance back at him again she'd notice him twiddling his thumbs. "...Because..."

"'Because' is not an answer." She huffs. "We're already here anyways." Admittedly disappointed that that was the best he could come up with.

The cottage is… cute.

It's old and dusty and the boards are a bit worn but it's adorably small and earthy. It's surrounded by a half ruined fence and is halfway overgrown with weeds and what looks to be a tree twisting it's way up it's side. Quinn likens it to the humble abodes you'd always hear about in fairy tales, part of her is waiting for it to begin sparkling or for a pixie to come out of it. It's a sort of picturesque, sweet looking place.

"Looks like someone built their dream house…" She muttered, running a hand along the fence. Flakes of paint falling off in peels and dust and Quinn has to rub her fingers together to get it off. "It's beautiful." She was by no means an architect but one didn't need to be in order to be enraptured by the architecture and detail that went into the rickety old house. Weirdly enough, she had a bit of a soft spot for small houses off the beaten path and that were clearly made with love and family in mind. Even if this one had fallen into a state of disrepair.

"I really don't think going in there is a good idea."

"You said it was abandoned."

"Well, I guess I did. But that still doesn't make it cool for you to break into there! Besides it's all shut up anyways-"

Quinn raised a brow at him, planting a hand into the front door and watched it swing wide open. Katsura trailed off at the sight. "It's open." He opens his mouth to say 'yeah, I can see that' and insist that they head towards the village but Quinn's already pushed inside to take a look around. Letting out a short whistle as she did so.

Katsura huffed, fists clenching and stomping his feet indignantly.

Of course she didn't see it and he was left standing outside the house looking- and feeling- like an idiot. "Grr..." Katsura groaned, put out.

He bit his lip, not caring about the sharp edge of his teeth, looking up at the old cottage. Noting the familiar creak of the door as it swung on its hinges, rickety and high pitched with wear and tear. He fisted his hands in the fabric of his pants, clutching them tightly and not really knowing what to do as Quinn passed by the broken window, coughing at the dust that covered the place from head to toe, leaving him standing outside reluctantly.

He hadn't taken a step into the old home in years. Hadn't even gone near it in that time.

"Quinn…" He called after her weakly.

If she heard him she didn't acknowledge it, too busy waving dust away. Katsura couldn't help the growl and the whine slowly bubbling up through his throat. Not knowing whether to be angry or to hang his head.

The house was the same as he left it. It'd remained untouched. Just older now. More overgrown. No matter how many weeds and plants began to fester in its splinters and cracks the home was still dark and lonely and would remain that way until its pieces had been put back together.

Katsura swallowed at the sight. "You know… I haven't taken a step in here since I lost that shell I was telling you about." He let out a deep breath, unclenching his fists. A wave of nervousness washing over him.

Quinn's head popped out through the shattered window.

"Gyeh!"

"Oh yeah?" She rubbed her face, brushing off dust. "The special one?"

He shook off the frazzled look. He hadn't been expecting her to pop out just like that. "Y-Yeah. It's been about four years since I last saw it." He admitted, eyes flicking back to the door of the cottage. It continued to creak on its hinges, as if baiting him.

"What happened to it?"

"Huh? O-Oh," he started, distracted, "Uh- It got... It got tossed into the ocean."

"That's too bad."

She popped back into the house. And Katsura blinked, stumbling over to the window to peer in, "Oy, Quinn?" He couldn't see her. It was too dark and a cloud of dust came billowing out into his face. "Urk- Quinn, seriously, you shouldn't-"

There's a crash.

 _"...ow."_

"Quinn!" He snaps. "You better not have broken anything in there!"

"No, no. I just tripped." Quinn grumbled. "Thanks for the worry much."

Katsura listened to the sarcastic mutter and huffed, rushing over to the door to slam it fully open and make sure that she was really telling the truth, a sudden wave of panic hitting him. She better not have messed anything up or he- he-

He stops short on the doorstep again. Practically skidding to a halt.

The cottage is frustratingly familiar.

Katsura feels his face contort painfully, taking a reluctant step inside.

Quinn had left footprints in the dust that layered the floor, a clear trail leading to a second room of the house, winding across the boards and around the old table and writing desk. Past the shell decorated walls and the cabinet with only two cups and two plates and past the broken chair tipped over on the ground, splintered and old, laying in the immediate pathway to the doorway of the next room. "Quinn?" He managed to bite out through clenched teeth, slowly shuffling over towards the other room.

"Over here."

Katsura felt his teeth clench down around his tongue reflexively. Taking in a calming breath- or, at least, it was supposed to be calming. All it did was make his heart stutter in his chest and his eyes blur at the edges as he tried to make his way through the room in the direction Quinn's voice had come. He nearly trips as he comes to a shuffling halt- the shape of a dusty picture frame coming into view.

He stared at the small photo for a long moment.

Feeling like his heart was bursting before he shakily managed to knock it over so he couldn't see it, quickly hopping over the chair lying in the way and turning the corner. "What're you…"

"One of the floorboards was sticking up," Quinn huffed, rubbing her ankle, "Freakin' caught my toe and tripped me up." Quinn muttered, frowning at said floorboard. It was curled up in the corner, as if from water damage, with a rusty nail sticking up from it. A wicked thing that nearly tore through the sole of her shoe.

He didn't remember that being there.

The board was oddly knocked out of place too.

He eyed it for a second longer before shaking his head. "Hey, Quinn!" He hissed angrily, trying to push aside the shake in his voice. "I told you not to come in here!"

She raised her hands up in defense. "Ace could've been here. Besides it's not like I'm trying to mess with anything." She then pursed her lips, leaning in to stare at him. "You're being weird about this place anyways. There's nothing in here."

Well, not anything you wouldn't expect from something that had clearly once been a home.

"If you really wanted to stop me then you could've." She pointed out. "It's just some house."

"It's not just some-!" He stopped abruptly, getting red faced. Quinn raised a brow at his abrupt cut off. "Oh, just get out already!"

She snorted. "Okay, okay. I'm going."

He scowled at her until she left, tripping on the board again on her way out.

"Ow!"

Katsura slumped once she was out of view.

This was his fault really, he pouted. He should've remembered that the cottage was in view of the cliff edge when he shot them up. He'd just been so distracted and cocky when it came to the Beast that he'd completely thrown all other thoughts to the side in order to see how well he faired up against the goat. And wasn't that a mistake. He prodded his face. It throbbed something awful and he was pretty sure he'd fractured- if not broken- something.

"Damn it." He'd been so arrogant. Thinking that the Beast wouldn't have gotten stronger. "Come on, Katsura," he slapped himself in the face, "Knock some sense into you! No time to be weak, we just gotta try it again!"

There was just one problem though. He couldn't beat the goats control over the ocean- it just made the currents ferocious and stormy and whatever power he had could be stolen at the drop of a hat. Completely sweeping his feet out from under him.

He just needed something to focus.

Then he'd be able to beat the Beast. "-Just need something to focus..." He muttered. "That way I'll be strong enough to break his hide and win. Then I can search wherever I want for the Shell." While saying it to himself Katsura ended up rubbing a hand over his brow and the action caused him to look down.

Specifically at the upturned floorboard. And beneath the upturned floorboard at a parcel that didn't look like it'd been touched in forever.

-0-

There's a very distinct trail that Ace is leaving behind in the sand- er, well, the Tava-guy is leaving it behind. Ace just has him by the ankle, dragging him none-too-gently since he didn't seem to be much more than a deadweight at this point. Only managing to shakily point a finger and cough out a direction before Ace was off again.

Apparently the fall had been too much for his poor heart.

He screeched to a halt once he felt he had gone far enough that he'd maybe gotten turned around a bit, looking around for any sign of the Catfish guy. "Oy. Where next?" No answer. He shook the guy a bit. "Oy?"

There came a wheeze. "I told you, to the cliffside. It's-" He fell into coughs, spitting and sputtering, and wiping sand off his tongue.

"You should've kept your mouth closed."

He managed to snarl out between his coughing fit, pained tears in his eyes. "You could've just walked!"

Ace rolled his eyes. This guy was awfully dramatic.

Something then caught his eye. "Oh- is that it?"

As if saying that had some sort of magical effect- (lucky, one might say) -Ace watched as Quinn stepped out from inside some old cottage building and leaned up against the broken fence without even noticing him. Looks like the guy was showing him the right way after all and here Ace was beginning to think that he was just making up a direction. "Quinn! Oy!"

He watched her head pop up in surprise.

He's equally surprised to watch her smile and go to wave-

And then immediately fall over backwards as the fence she's sitting on collapses and sends her sprawling on her back.

Ace doesn't even try to cover his laugh in her expense. "Chehahaha-!" Guffawing and holding his stomach. "You okay there Quinn?!"

"Shut up!" She groans. Ace can barely hear it she's so quiet, muttering curses under her breath. Her voice sounds horribly hoarse. He jumps over to help her up, offering a hand. "Isn't it polite to _not_ laugh at other people? Especially not people you know."

"Probably, but I don't have to be polite all the time." He shrugged. "Besides friends are always fair game."

They were ignoring him. Tava sighed in relief, never before had he been so happy to _not_ have everybody's attention than now. It gave him time to wipe the sand out of his mouth and heave out a lungful more that he had, surprise surprise, swallowed. That freckled face jerk had a ironclad grip and Tava had a newfound respect for being able to walk on his own two feet and, you know, _not_ be dragged around by the ankle.

Shakily he stood up and dusted himself off. Eyeing the black haired woman that was apparently the freckled-monsters friend and flinching at the sight of the old worn down cottage.

He just barely managed to catch the tail end of what they were saying in time to hear, "-yeah, this guy gave me directions." And see said freckled-monster jerk a thumb over his shoulder lazily.

Tava cheeped, freezing in his efforts to dust himself off.

The woman's scrutinizing gaze focusing in on him wasn't what set him off though. It was the shock of red hair and gills walking out of the cottage holding a poorly wrapped package that did.

Katsura took one look at the boy in front of him and snarled.


End file.
